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Mindon fire, March 2018 Minhla, Mindon

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2018, 06:55 UTC

The fire started on 7 March 2018 in Mindon, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,276 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 50th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 7 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2018, of 42.

Burnt area
4,276ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
7 Mar 2018 – 15 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Mar
2018
Heat detections
149
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
528MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

7810111213141516

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
47km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,347 ha in 2016, 810 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,756 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Minhla
    2,522 ha
    1.1 %
  2. Mindon where it started
    1,777 ha
    0.7 %

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)
7 Mar 35.8 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Mar 35.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Mar 36.3 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Mar 36.4 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Mar 34.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Mar 34.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 35.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Mar 34.1 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Mar 36.1 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Mar after 35.2 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Mar after 31.2 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Mar after 37.0 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Mar after 34.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Mar after 36.2 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Mar after 37.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Mar after 37.6 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Mar after 37.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Mar after 38.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar after 37.0 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Feb 2018
After · 22 Mar 2018

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 · 0Every 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 Mindon fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 March 2018 and 15 March 2018: 9 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 4,276 hectares (42.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Minhla (2,522 ha, 1.1 %); Mindon (1,777 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.