How long did the Lungsen fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2026 and 20 March 2026: 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 6,412 hectares (64.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lungsen (6,230 ha, 5.6 %); West Bunghmun (220 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.

IN · India · 2026-03-15 → 2026-03-20

Lungsen fire, March 2026 Lungsen, West Bunghmun

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2026, 07:41 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2026 in Lungsen, India, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,412 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Mizoram since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 41 in India in 2026, of 65.

Burnt area: 6,412ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 6days; 15 Mar 2026 – 20 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; subdistricts
Started on: 15 Mar; 2026
Heat detections: 110; in a single hotspot: 172 MW
Danger at start: 25; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Mar 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar20 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

48km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 31 Mar.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,986 ha in 2016, 197 ha in 2017, 1,826 ha in 2018, 1,990 ha in 2019, 2,756 ha in 2020, 3,627 ha in 2021, 2,471 ha in 2022, 2,840 ha in 2023, 4,496 ha in 2024, 4,654 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,350 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Lungsen where it started

6,230 ha reached on 14 Mar

5.6 %
West Bunghmun

220 ha reached on 19 Mar

0.2 %

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)
9 Mar	32.7 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
10 Mar	34.1 °C	36 %	25 km/h	0.9 mm	High 22
11 Mar	34.2 °C	44 %	28 km/h	4.9 mm	Low 6
12 Mar	33.5 °C	45 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 15
13 Mar	30.9 °C	46 %	47 km/h	3.3 mm	Low 6
14 Mar	30.9 °C	50 %	48 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 14
15 Mar	32.2 °C	49 %	44 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 18
16 Mar	32.0 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 18
17 Mar	32.8 °C	35 %	38 km/h	2.4 mm	Moderate 12
18 Mar	33.9 °C	37 %	32 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 16
19 Mar	34.5 °C	35 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
20 Mar	31.4 °C	51 %	27 km/h	1.2 mm	Low 11
21 Mar after	28.8 °C	46 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 15
22 Mar after	29.8 °C	43 %	31 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 12
23 Mar after	30.2 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
24 Mar after	32.9 °C	31 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
25 Mar after	33.5 °C	34 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
26 Mar after	35.6 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 Mar after	36.2 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
28 Mar after	31.4 °C	47 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
29 Mar after	32.6 °C	44 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 19
30 Mar after	33.4 °C	51 %	35 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 18
31 Mar after	33.5 °C	47 %	37 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Mar 2026

After · 27 Mar 2026

Before After

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 20 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³

Days over the guideline11 days

PM1097 µg/m³

Optical depth1.86

WHO 15

1314151617181920212223

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 · 110Every 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

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lungsen fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2026 and 20 March 2026: 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 6,412 hectares (64.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lungsen (6,230 ha, 5.6 %); West Bunghmun (220 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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 (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.

Where it burned