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Monghsat fire, 9 March 2019 Monghsat

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2019, 18:47 UTC

The fire started on 9 March 2019 in Monghsat, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,396 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 259th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 42 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

Burnt area
3,396ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
9 Mar 2019 – 20 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Mar
2019
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Mar20 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151618192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
53km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,685 ha in 2016, 832 ha in 2017, 610 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,703 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Monghsat where it started
    3,412 ha reached on 9 Mar
    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)
9 Mar 31.4 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Mar 30.1 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Mar 31.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Mar 31.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Mar 32.2 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Mar 32.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Mar 33.0 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Mar 33.9 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Mar 34.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Mar 34.7 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Mar 34.6 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Mar 34.4 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Mar after 33.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Mar after 32.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Mar after 33.4 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Mar after 34.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar after 34.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar after 34.4 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Mar after 34.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar after 31.9 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
29 Mar after 34.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Mar after 33.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Mar 2019
After · 27 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 · 143Every 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 Monghsat fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 March 2019 and 20 March 2019: 12 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 3,396 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Monghsat (3,412 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 53 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.