Lawksawk fire, 23 February 2026 Lawksawk, Mongkaing
The fire started on 23 February 2026 in Lawksawk, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 44 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,068 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 806 with a page). Number 24 in Myanmar in 2026, of 480.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 17,068ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 44days
- 23 Feb 2026 – 7 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 667
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 154MW
- 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 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.7 mm on 8 Apr.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,057 ha in 2016, 3,704 ha in 2017, 479 ha in 2018, 4,530 ha in 2019, 3,231 ha in 2020, 3,086 ha in 2021, 6,354 ha in 2022, 3,594 ha in 2024, 9,584 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,259 ha that had burned before.
- 5,997 ha Lawksawk fire, February 2025 38,375 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,294 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2021 3,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,052 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2025 2,257 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,949 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2022 2,992 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,895 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2024 2,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,452 ha Mongkaing fire, March 2022 6,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,074 ha Lawksawk fire, February 2020 2,965 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 768 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2017 4,159 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
-
Lawksawk where it started16,435 ha reached on 23 Feb3.2 %
-
710 ha reached on 6 Mar0.2 %
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 0.20 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Feb | 31.5 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Feb | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Feb | 26.8 °C | 49 % | 22 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Feb | 30.1 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Feb | 31.2 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Feb | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Mar | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Mar | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Mar | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Mar | 30.8 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Mar | 33.0 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Mar | 33.9 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Mar | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Mar | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Mar | 36.6 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Mar | 34.8 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Mar | 32.1 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 2.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 12 Mar | 32.3 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 13 Mar | 30.3 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Mar | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Mar | 32.6 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Mar | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Mar | 31.4 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Mar | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Mar | 34.5 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Mar | 32.9 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Mar | 30.8 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 8.5 mm | Very low 5 |
| 22 Mar | 30.7 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 9.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Mar | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 24 Mar | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Mar | 34.3 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Mar | 34.4 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Mar | 34.2 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Mar | 32.8 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Mar | 34.2 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Apr | 33.9 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 11 |
| 2 Apr | 36.1 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Apr | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Apr | 36.2 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Apr | 35.8 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Apr | 34.5 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 5.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 7 Apr | 30.4 °C | 54 % | 34 km/h | 16.6 mm | Very low 1 |
| 8 Apr after | 30.1 °C | 57 % | 32 km/h | 7.7 mm | Very low 1 |
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 4 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 136 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 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 · 667Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 38,375 haLawksawk20 February 2025 · 36 days · 4 km away
- 7,170 haMongkaing14 March 2026 · 21 days · 21 km away
- 6,966 haLawksawk13 March 2026 · 25 days · 23 km away
- 24,421 haLawksawk27 February 2026 · 14 days · 33 km away
- 36,894 haLawksawk19 February 2024 · 35 days · 36 km away
- 9,954 haYwangan2 March 2025 · 20 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lawksawk fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 February 2026 to 7 April 2026 (44 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 March 2026 to 31 March 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,068 hectares (170.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lawksawk (16,435 ha, 3.2 %); Mongkaing (710 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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: 31 March 2026 → 7 April 2026.
- Start date: 1 March 2026 → 23 February 2026.
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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 March 2026 to 31 March 2026. 667 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.