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Kawkareik fire, 23 March 2020 Kawkareik, Myawaddy

Out · last detection 1 Apr 2020, 19:19 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2020 in Kawkareik, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,793 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Kayin since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 98 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,793ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
23 Mar 2020 – 31 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2020
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
286MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930311

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

35°high
38km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 388 ha in 2016, 186 ha in 2017, 364 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 534 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kawkareik where it started
    2,616 ha reached on 21 Mar
    1.1 %
  2. Myawaddy
    196 ha reached on 22 Mar
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
23 Mar 35.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar 34.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar 34.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Mar 34.1 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Mar 34.0 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Mar 34.0 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Mar 34.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Mar 34.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Mar 35.1 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Apr after 34.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Apr after 35.5 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Apr after 36.0 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Apr after 36.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Apr after 36.3 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Apr after 34.4 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
7 Apr after 34.5 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Apr after 34.7 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Apr after 36.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Apr after 35.8 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 16 Mar 2020
After · 7 Apr 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 143Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Myanmar (Burma) ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kawkareik fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2020 and 31 March 2020: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,793 hectares (27.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kawkareik (2,616 ha, 1.1 %); Myawaddy (196 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.