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Mongkhet fire, 6 April 2023 Mongkhet, Mongyang, Matman

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2023, 19:08 UTC

The fire started on 6 April 2023 in Mongkhet, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,845 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 142th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 41 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

Burnt area
4,845ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
6 Apr 2023 – 15 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
6 Apr
2023
Heat detections
328
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Apr15 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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: 1,993 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongkhet where it started
    4,607 ha reached on 1 Apr
    1.8 %
  2. Mongyang
    197 ha reached on 4 Apr
    0.1 %
  3. Matman
    70 ha reached on 1 Apr
    0.0 %

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)
6 Apr 34.0 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Apr 34.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Apr 35.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Apr 36.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Apr 36.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Apr 35.4 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr 35.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Apr 35.9 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Apr 36.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Apr 37.0 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Apr after 37.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Apr after 36.8 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Apr after 36.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Apr after 36.5 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Apr after 36.6 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr after 36.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Apr after 35.3 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
23 Apr after 36.4 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
24 Apr after 33.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr after 36.0 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Mar 2023
After · 22 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 · 328Every 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 Mongkhet fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 April 2023 and 15 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 4,845 hectares (48.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mongkhet (4,607 ha, 1.8 %); Mongyang (197 ha, 0.1 %); Matman (70 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.