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MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Langkho fire, 29 January 2020 Langkho

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2020, 18:28 UTC

The fire started on 29 January 2020 in Langkho, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,732 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 101th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 22 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.6 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
5,732ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
29 Jan 2020 – 21 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Jan
2020
Heat detections
225
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
512MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jan21 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2931123456789101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,313 ha in 2016, 63 ha in 2017, 335 ha in 2018, 668 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,639 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Langkho where it started
    5,757 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.1 %

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)
29 Jan 31.8 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Jan 32.1 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Jan 32.3 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Feb 33.3 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Feb 33.7 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Feb 33.5 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Feb 33.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Feb 33.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Feb 33.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Feb 34.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Feb 35.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Feb 34.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Feb 34.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Feb 35.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Feb 35.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Feb 34.8 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Feb 34.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Feb 34.6 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Feb 34.8 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Feb 35.8 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Feb 34.8 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Feb 35.2 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Feb 35.5 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Feb 36.0 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Feb after 35.3 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb after 33.9 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Feb after 34.2 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Feb after 35.4 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Feb after 35.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Feb after 33.8 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Feb after 34.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Feb after 35.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Mar after 36.9 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Mar after 37.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jan 2020
After · 28 Feb 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 · 225Every 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 Langkho fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 January 2020 and 21 February 2020: 24 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 5,732 hectares (57.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Langkho (5,757 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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.