Burned area
satellite only2,086ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 26 Feb 2024 – 11 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MM · Myanmar · –
Loikaw fire, 26 February 2024 Loikaw, Bawlake, Demoso
Out · last detection 12 Mar 2024, 19:01 UTC
The fire started on 26 February 2024 in Loikaw, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,086 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 158th largest in Kayah since 2016 (of 169 with a page). Number 165 in Myanmar in 2024, of 174.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Bawlake · 2020Mese · 2020Bawlake · 2021Shadaw · 2020
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only15days
26 Feb 2024 to 11 Mar 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 12 Mar 2024, 19:01 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only26 Feb 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 26 Feb 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only82
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 25 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 26 Feb 2024 – 11 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only110MW
Total radiative power on 29 February 2024; hotspots that day: 23.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 29 Feb 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model31.3FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 26 Feb 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model37.8°C · 29% RH
High of 37.8 °C and minimum humidity of 29% on 27 February 2024; gusts of 34 km/h on 28 February 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 26 Feb 2024 – 11 Mar 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 4 March 2024 → 11 March 2024.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,086 ha
- Dates
- 26 Feb 2024 – 11 Mar 2024
- Name
- Loikaw
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/loikaw-2024-02-3?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire loikaw-2024-02-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-02-26 | 2 | 9 | 37.1 | 15.8 | 29 | 6.9 | 20.2 | 0 | 31.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-02-27 | 6 | 36 | 37.8 | 17.5 | 29 | 7.2 | 24.8 | 0 | 31.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-02-28 | 10 | 71 | 37.4 | 17.5 | 27 | 10.4 | 34.2 | 0 | 34.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-02-29 | 23 | 110 | 36.8 | 18.1 | 31 | 7.6 | 26.3 | 0 | 32.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-01 | 9 | 12 | 36.8 | 17.6 | 29 | 8.2 | 28.4 | 0 | 33.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-02 | 8 | 37 | 37.1 | 16 | 30 | 8.6 | 27.7 | 0 | 34.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-03 | 7 | 84 | 36.6 | 17.9 | 35 | 10.4 | 33.1 | 0 | 34.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-04 | 7 | 17 | 37.4 | 17.8 | 27 | 9.2 | 24.5 | 0 | 33.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-05 | 2 | 3 | 37.8 | 17.9 | 32 | 7.2 | 21.2 | 0 | 32.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-06 | 1 | 1 | 37.4 | 17.6 | 31 | 9 | 19.8 | 0 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-07 | 0 | 0 | 36.9 | 18.6 | 29 | 5.9 | 23.4 | 0 | 32 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-08 | 0 | 0 | 37.7 | 16.7 | 31 | 7.4 | 29.5 | 0 | 33.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-09 | 1 | 1 | 37.7 | 17.9 | 31 | 9.4 | 31 | 0 | 35.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-10 | 2 | 9 | 37.7 | 19.7 | 35 | 8.7 | 29.5 | 0 | 34.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-11 | 1 | 3 | 37.7 | 18.7 | 30 | 10.1 | 28.4 | 0 | 35.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-12 | 3 | 7 | 37 | 18.1 | 32 | 13 | 42.1 | 0 | 38.6 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-13 | 0 | 0 | 37.1 | 18.9 | 29 | 8.6 | 27 | 0 | 35 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-14 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 19.1 | 31 | 8.9 | 22.7 | 0 | 35.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-15 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 19.8 | 29 | 4.7 | 24.5 | 0 | 32.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-16 | 0 | 0 | 37.6 | 20.1 | 31 | 7.4 | 26.3 | 0 | 34.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-17 | 0 | 0 | 37.5 | 20.6 | 34 | 8 | 25.2 | 0 | 34.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-18 | 0 | 0 | 38.6 | 22 | 33 | 9.7 | 21.2 | 0 | 36.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 38.7 | 22.3 | 29 | 8.4 | 25.9 | 0 | 35.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-20 | 0 | 0 | 38.1 | 22.5 | 25 | 8.3 | 30.6 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-21 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 23.9 | 39 | 9.4 | 33.8 | 0.5 | 32.3 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,086ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 26 Feb 2024 – 11 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 29MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
26 Feb11 Mar
12 Mar 2024
How it evolved, day by day
26 Feb
29 Feb
3 Mar
6 Mar
11 Mar
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
38°high
34km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 78 ha in 2017, 297 ha in 2022.
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
-
Loikaw where it started1,154 ha reached on 26 Feb0.8 %
-
920 ha reached on 29 Feb0.5 %
-
21 ha reached on 2 Mar0.0 %
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 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 24 % of the area in Myanmar
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Feb | 37.1 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Feb | 37.8 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Feb | 37.4 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Feb | 36.8 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Mar | 36.8 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Mar | 37.1 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Mar | 36.6 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Mar | 37.4 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Mar | 37.8 °C | 32 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Mar | 37.4 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Mar | 36.9 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Mar | 37.7 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Mar | 37.7 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Mar | 37.7 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Mar | 37.7 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Mar after | 38.6 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Mar after | 38.7 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Mar after | 38.1 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Mar after | 35.0 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 32 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 31.3, a minimum humidity of 29% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 41.
FWI at the start
31.3
Minimum humidity
29 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Loikaw fire, 26 February 2024
2,086 ha
15 days
FWI 31.3
Min. humidity 29 %
Bawlake fire, February 2020
2,310 ha
9 days
FWI 31.5
Min. humidity 29 %
33 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mese fire, March 2020
2,058 ha
6 days
FWI 31.5
Min. humidity 29 %
75 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Khun Yuam fire, March 2020
3,214 ha
20 days
FWI 32.6
Min. humidity 29 %
71 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mae Sariang fire, March 2017
1,349 ha
8 days
FWI 30.8
Min. humidity 29 %
128 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Langkho fire, March 2017
4,895 ha
10 days
FWI 32.9
Min. humidity 29 %
112 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 12 days
- median duration
- 2,516 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 17 of 41 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (2,086 ha against a median of 2,516 ha) and lasted 15 days, against 12 days.
In 24 of 41, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
34km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 11 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 41, with a median of 2.8 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 19 Feb 2024
After · 18 Mar 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 7 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1065 µg/m³
Optical depth0.69
WHO 15
24 Feb27 Feb1 Mar4 Mar7 Mar
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
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 · 82Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,204 haBawlake25 February 2021 · 26 days · 13 km away
- 50,296 haShadaw1 February 2020 · 42 days · 27 km away
- 22,737 haBawlake17 March 2026 · 29 days · 27 km away
- 31,882 haHpasawng6 March 2026 · 41 days · 28 km away
- 65,182 haShadaw9 March 2026 · 48 days · 31 km away
- 36,428 haMese17 February 2024 · 37 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Loikaw fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 February 2024 to 11 March 2024 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 February 2024 to 4 March 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,086 hectares (20.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Loikaw (1,154 ha, 0.8 %); Bawlake (920 ha, 0.5 %); Demoso (21 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 41. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 2,516 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 24 of 41, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 4 March 2024 → 11 March 2024.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 February 2024 to 4 March 2024. 82 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.