Lashio fire, March 2021 Lashio, Hsipaw
The fire started on 2 March 2021 in Lashio, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,519 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 42th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 10 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2021, of 159.
- Burnt area
- 10,519ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 2 Mar 2021 – 17 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 469
- in a single hotspot: 114 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.8GW
- sum of detected power
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 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,520 ha in 2016, 3,669 ha in 2017, 6,668 ha in 2018, 6,593 ha in 2019, 5,142 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,566 ha that had burned before.
- 6,502 ha Lashio fire, March 2018 22,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,093 ha Lashio fire, March 2019 12,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,462 ha Lashio fire, March 2020 5,460 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,500 ha Lashio fire, March 2019 3,296 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,440 ha Lashio fire, March 2017 2,836 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,335 ha Lashio fire, March 2017 4,352 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,327 ha Lashio fire, March 2020 2,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,260 ha Lashio fire, March 2016 2,348 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lashio where it started10,510 ha reached on 2 Mar2.7 %
-
41 ha reached on 15 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Mar | 30.7 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Mar | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Mar | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Mar | 30.7 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Mar | 29.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Mar | 30.2 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Mar | 29.5 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Mar | 29.0 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Mar | 30.5 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Mar | 29.9 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 12 Mar | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Mar | 32.5 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Mar | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Mar | 32.4 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Mar | 32.7 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Mar | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Mar after | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Mar after | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Mar after | 32.6 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Mar after | 32.2 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Mar after | 32.1 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Mar after | 33.9 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
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.
Detections table · 469Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lashio fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 March 2021 and 17 March 2021: 16 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 10,519 hectares (105.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lashio (10,510 ha, 2.7 %); Hsipaw (41 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.
Report an error
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.