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MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Mindon fire, March 2019 Mindon

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2019, 07:39 UTC

The fire started on 17 March 2019 in Mindon, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,683 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 113th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 74 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

Burnt area
2,683ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Mar 2019 – 21 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Mar
2019
Heat detections
87
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
386MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
52km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 145 ha in 2016, 32 ha in 2017, 965 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Mindon where it started
    2,697 ha reached on 17 Mar
    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)
17 Mar 35.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Mar 37.7 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Mar 34.7 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Mar 35.4 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Mar 34.5 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Mar after 37.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Mar after 36.4 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Mar after 37.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Mar after 38.4 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar after 38.0 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Mar after 35.5 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Mar after 35.8 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Mar after 36.7 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Mar after 36.1 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Mar after 35.4 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Mar 2019
After · 28 Mar 2019

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 · 87Every 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 17 March 2019 and 21 March 2019: 5 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 2,683 hectares (26.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mindon (2,697 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.