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Mabein fire, April 2023 Mabein

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2023, 07:05 UTC

The fire started on 6 April 2023 in Mabein, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,929 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 136th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 40 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,929ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
6 Apr 2023 – 19 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Apr
2023
Heat detections
244
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
986MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Apr19 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
42km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mabein where it started
    4,942 ha reached on 5 Apr
    1.0 %

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)
6 Apr 33.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Apr 36.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Apr 37.2 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Apr 36.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Apr 37.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Apr 37.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Apr 37.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Apr 37.4 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Apr 37.7 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Apr 39.4 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Apr 38.5 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Apr 39.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Apr 38.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Apr 39.4 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Apr after 38.7 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Apr after 37.8 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Apr after 34.8 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
23 Apr after 34.7 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
24 Apr after 35.0 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
25 Apr after 36.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Apr after 37.1 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
27 Apr after 36.9 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Apr after 37.6 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Apr after 36.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Mar 2023
After · 26 Apr 2023

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 · 244Every 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 Mabein fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 April 2023 and 19 April 2023: 14 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 4,929 hectares (49.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mabein (4,942 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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.