Langkho fire, 12 February 2024 Mongton, Langkho, Mongpan
The fire started on 12 February 2024 in Langkho, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,035 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 806 with a page). Number 5 in Myanmar in 2024, of 174.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 21,035ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 36days
- 12 Feb 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,114
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 108MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 20 Mar.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,207 ha in 2016, 5,074 ha in 2017, 2,711 ha in 2018, 12,014 ha in 2019, 11,174 ha in 2020, 7,332 ha in 2021, 2,763 ha in 2022, 7,617 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,772 ha that had burned before.
- 5,329 ha Mongpan fire, March 2019 20,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,900 ha Mongton fire, January 2020 3,607 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,834 ha Mongton fire, March 2020 4,252 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,201 ha Mongton fire, February 2021 5,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,092 ha Mongton fire, February 2022 2,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,961 ha Mongton fire, February 2017 3,164 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,939 ha Mongton fire, February 2019 2,901 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,851 ha Mongton fire, March 2023 3,743 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
19,479 ha reached on 12 Feb3.8 %
-
Langkho where it started1,063 ha reached on 14 Feb0.2 %
-
562 ha reached on 17 Feb0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.47 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Feb | 35.0 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Feb | 35.7 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Feb | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Feb | 36.5 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Feb | 36.9 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Feb | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Feb | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Feb | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Feb | 35.9 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Feb | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Feb | 37.0 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Feb | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Feb | 37.3 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Feb | 38.7 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Feb | 38.8 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Feb | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Feb | 38.6 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Feb | 38.4 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Mar | 38.3 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Mar | 39.3 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Mar | 37.4 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Mar | 38.8 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Mar | 38.3 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Mar | 38.1 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 7 Mar | 38.1 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Mar | 39.3 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Mar | 39.2 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Mar | 38.9 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Mar | 39.3 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Mar | 38.2 °C | 27 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Mar | 38.6 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Mar | 37.2 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Mar | 37.8 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 16 Mar | 38.7 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Mar | 38.8 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Mar | 39.4 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Mar after | 39.6 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Mar after | 36.1 °C | 44 % | 36 km/h | 2.5 mm | Moderate 14 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 8 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 67 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 47: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,114Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,680 haMongton17 March 2026 · 23 days · 6 km away
- 20,728 haMongpanMarch 2019 · 32 days · 14 km away
- 20,047 haMongton17 March 2026 · 29 days · 21 km away
- 8,288 haLangkho28 February 2020 · 16 days · 25 km away
- 11,795 haLangkho22 March 2026 · 20 days · 27 km away
- 13,153 haLangkho18 March 2026 · 24 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Langkho fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 February 2024 to 18 March 2024 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 February 2024 to 16 March 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,035 hectares (210.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mongton (19,479 ha, 3.8 %); Langkho (1,063 ha, 0.2 %); Mongpan (562 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 (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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 16 March 2024 → 18 March 2024.
- Start date: 16 February 2024 → 12 February 2024.
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 February 2024 to 16 March 2024. 1,114 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.