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Kunhing fire, 18 March 2026 Mongping, Kunhing

Out · last detection 8 Apr 2026, 19:14 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2026 in Kunhing, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,192 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 6 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.

Burnt area
44,192ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
18 Mar 2026 – 7 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2026
Heat detections
1,510
in a single hotspot: 174 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
14.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Apr 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar7 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242526272829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,746 ha in 2016, 12,343 ha in 2017, 3,498 ha in 2018, 12,068 ha in 2019, 18,751 ha in 2020, 17,076 ha in 2021, 19,315 ha in 2023, 14,844 ha in 2024, 8,262 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 36,297 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongping
    41,588 ha reached on 15 Mar
    6.9 %
  2. Kunhing where it started
    2,850 ha reached on 13 Mar
    1.0 %

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)
13 Mar 26.3 °C 55 % 36 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 3
14 Mar 29.0 °C 46 % 35 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 3
15 Mar 29.1 °C 47 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Low 7
16 Mar 29.5 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
17 Mar 30.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Mar 32.6 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Mar 33.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
20 Mar 32.2 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Mar 34.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
22 Mar 30.4 °C 47 % 41 km/h 9.4 mm Very low 2
23 Mar 33.0 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Mar 32.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Mar 33.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Mar 33.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Mar 33.6 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Mar 35.8 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
29 Mar 33.8 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Mar 34.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Mar 33.9 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Apr 34.3 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Apr 34.9 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Apr 36.3 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Apr 36.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Apr 35.7 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Apr 35.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Apr 35.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 4.1 mm Moderate 12
8 Apr after 34.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
9 Apr after 32.0 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 15
10 Apr after 32.0 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
11 Apr after 33.7 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Apr after 35.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr after 35.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Apr after 36.5 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Apr after 36.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Apr after 34.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Apr after 36.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr after 35.3 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Apr after 35.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Apr after 33.0 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Apr after 37.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Apr after 36.8 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Apr after 33.6 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Apr after 38.2 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2026
After · 14 Apr 2026

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 26 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 129 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak129 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM10144 µg/m³
Optical depth1.35
1617181920212223242526272829303112345678910
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,510Every 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 Kunhing fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2026 and 7 April 2026: 21 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 44,192 hectares (441.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongping (41,588 ha, 6.9 %); Kunhing (2,850 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.