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Lawksawk fire, March 2016 Lawksawk, Mongkaing, Hopong

Out · last detection 17 Mar 2016, 18:54 UTC

The fire started on 9 March 2016 in Lawksawk, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,874 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 353th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 55 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016, of 119.

Burnt area
2,874ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
9 Mar 2016 – 16 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
9 Mar
2016
Heat detections
135
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
991MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Mar16 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

910111213151617

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Lawksawk where it started
    2,446 ha reached on 4 Mar
    0.5 %
  2. Mongkaing
    434 ha reached on 10 Mar
    0.1 %
  3. Hopong
    4 ha reached on 6 Mar
    0.0 %

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)
9 Mar 32.8 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Mar 32.3 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Mar 33.1 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Mar 32.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Mar 33.4 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar 34.0 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Mar 34.2 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Mar 32.7 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
17 Mar after 32.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Mar after 32.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar after 32.4 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Mar after 32.3 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Mar after 33.8 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Mar after 31.8 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
23 Mar after 32.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Mar after 32.8 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Mar after 35.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Mar after 33.9 °C 27 % 37 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 · 2 Mar 2016
After · 23 Mar 2016

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 · 135Every 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 Lawksawk fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 March 2016 and 16 March 2016: 8 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 2,874 hectares (28.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lawksawk (2,446 ha, 0.5 %); Mongkaing (434 ha, 0.1 %); Hopong (4 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 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.

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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.