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Mindon fire, April 2023 Mindon, Minhla

Out · last detection 11 Apr 2023, 19:03 UTC

The fire started on 1 April 2023 in Mindon, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,284 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 49th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 55 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

Burnt area
4,284ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
1 Apr 2023 – 10 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
1 Apr
2023
Heat detections
245
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
898MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Apr10 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

134567891011

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
50km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,234 ha in 2016, 361 ha in 2018, 2,602 ha in 2019, 3,196 ha in 2020, 117 ha in 2021, 56 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,937 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mindon where it started
    4,175 ha reached on 25 Mar
    1.6 %
  2. Minhla
    137 ha reached on 25 Mar
    0.1 %

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)
1 Apr 33.9 °C 39 % 46 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 14
2 Apr 28.5 °C 62 % 50 km/h 1.9 mm Low 7
3 Apr 31.4 °C 48 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
4 Apr 34.4 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Apr 36.0 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Apr 36.7 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Apr 39.1 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Apr 39.3 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Apr 39.0 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
10 Apr 38.8 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Apr after 38.0 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr after 38.3 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Apr after 36.9 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Apr after 38.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Apr after 39.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr after 36.8 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
17 Apr after 36.6 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr after 38.3 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
19 Apr after 36.6 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Apr after 36.3 °C 47 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Mar 2023
After · 17 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 · 245Every 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 1 April 2023 and 10 April 2023: 10 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 4,284 hectares (42.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mindon (4,175 ha, 1.6 %); Minhla (137 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.