Lungsen fire, 11 March 2024 Lungsen, Chawngte, Lunglei
The fire started on 11 March 2024 in Lungsen, India, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,638 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Mizoram since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 5 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
- 7,638ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Mar 2024 – 16 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 11 Mar
- 2024
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.6 mm on 21 Mar.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,159 ha in 2016, 2,860 ha in 2017, 3,247 ha in 2018, 1,305 ha in 2019, 2,763 ha in 2020, 3,628 ha in 2021, 3,069 ha in 2022, 1,051 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,153 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Lungsen where it started4,828 ha4.4 %
-
1,302 ha2.0 %
-
967 ha0.7 %
-
575 ha0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Mar | 31.5 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Mar | 31.2 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Mar | 31.4 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 14 Mar | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Mar | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 16 Mar | 34.0 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Mar after | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Mar after | 33.0 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Mar after | 19.4 °C | 77 % | 33 km/h | 13.6 mm | Very low 0 |
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 16 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 179 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 106: 7.0 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lungsen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 March 2024 and 16 March 2024: 6 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 7,638 hectares (76.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lungsen (4,828 ha, 4.4 %); Chawngte (1,302 ha, 2.0 %); Lunglei (967 ha, 0.7 %); Lawngtlai (575 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 36 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 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
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.