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Lungsen fire, 11 March 2024 Lungsen, West Bunghmun

Out · last measured on 18 Mar 2024

The fire started on 11 March 2024 in Lungsen, India, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,322 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Mizoram since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 6 in India in 2024, of 7.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
6,322ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Mar 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
11 Mar
2024
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.2 mm on 21 Mar.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 773 ha in 2016, 369 ha in 2017, 1,943 ha in 2018, 2,160 ha in 2019, 2,042 ha in 2020, 4,171 ha in 2021, 1,916 ha in 2022, 2,915 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,723 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lungsen where it started
    5,451 ha
    4.9 %
  2. West Bunghmun
    909 ha
    0.8 %

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)
11 Mar 33.6 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Mar 33.8 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Mar 33.9 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
14 Mar 32.4 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Mar 34.7 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Mar 36.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Mar 36.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Mar 36.3 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Mar after 34.8 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
20 Mar after 35.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar after 22.6 °C 73 % 27 km/h 10.2 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Mar 2024
After · 25 Mar 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 16 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 195 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak195 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM10284 µg/m³
Optical depth1.23
9101112131415161718192021
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lungsen fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 March 2024 and 18 March 2024: 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 6,322 hectares (63.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lungsen (5,451 ha, 4.9 %); West Bunghmun (909 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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.

Emergency number: 112

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.