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Loikaw fire, February 2017 Loikaw, Shadaw

Out · last detection 6 Mar 2017, 18:16 UTC

The fire started on 28 February 2017 in Loikaw, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,986 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 92th largest in Kayah since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 60 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2017, of 118.

Burnt area
2,986ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
28 Feb 2017 – 6 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Feb
2017
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
251MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Feb6 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

28123456

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
31km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 766 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Loikaw where it started
    1,691 ha reached on 28 Feb
    1.1 %
  2. Shadaw
    1,308 ha reached on 28 Feb
    0.6 %

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)
28 Feb 34.8 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Mar 34.9 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Mar 35.2 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Mar 35.4 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Mar 35.3 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Mar 34.1 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Mar 35.3 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Mar after 34.5 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Mar after 34.3 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Mar after 33.7 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
10 Mar after 33.0 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Mar after 33.9 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Mar after 33.9 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Mar after 34.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Mar after 35.2 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Mar after 35.4 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Mar after 36.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Feb 2017
After · 13 Mar 2017

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 · 96Every 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 Loikaw fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2017 and 6 March 2017: 7 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 2,986 hectares (29.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loikaw (1,691 ha, 1.1 %); Shadaw (1,308 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.