Mongkaing fire, 24 March 2026 Hsipaw, Mongkaing
The fire started on 24 March 2026 in Mongkaing, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,732 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 446th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 806 with a page). Number 300 in Myanmar in 2026, of 480.
- Burnt area
- 2,732ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 24 Mar 2026 – 28 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 59
- in a single hotspot: 175 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 534MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 1 Apr.
This area had burned before
30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 549 ha in 2018, 49 ha in 2021, 263 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 818 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
2,474 ha0.5 %
-
Mongkaing where it started266 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Mar | 26.2 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 25 Mar | 28.9 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 26 Mar | 28.5 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Mar | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Mar | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 29 Mar after | 26.3 °C | 34 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 Mar after | 27.9 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 31 Mar after | 28.2 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Apr after | 27.8 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 11 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 26 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 59Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,192 haHsipaw24 March 2026 · 8 days · 8 km away
- 11,940 haHsipaw16 January 2026 · 24 days · 20 km away
- 5,132 haHsipawJanuary 2020 · 16 days · 21 km away
- 5,218 haHsipaw18 January 2026 · 14 days · 34 km away
- 9,041 haHsipaw17 January 2023 · 11 days · 37 km away
- 6,634 haHsipaw3 February 2020 · 9 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongkaing fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 March 2026 and 28 March 2026: 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 2,732 hectares (27.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hsipaw (2,474 ha, 0.5 %); Mongkaing (266 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (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.
Report an error
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.