Skip to content
worldfires
MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Mongkhet fire, 10 April 2023 Mongkhet

Out · last detection 17 Apr 2023, 18:49 UTC

The fire started on 10 April 2023 in Mongkhet, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,898 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 347th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 106 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,898ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Apr
2023
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
506MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Apr17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617

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
44km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 104 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongkhet where it started
    2,913 ha reached on 5 Apr
    1.2 %

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)
10 Apr 35.7 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Apr 34.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Apr 35.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Apr 35.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Apr 35.9 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Apr 36.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Apr 36.8 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Apr 36.3 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Apr after 36.0 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Apr after 36.0 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Apr after 36.1 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr after 35.5 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Apr after 34.8 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
23 Apr after 35.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
24 Apr after 32.5 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr after 35.5 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
26 Apr after 34.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
27 Apr after 34.9 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Apr 2023
After · 24 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 · 130Every 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 10 April 2023 and 17 April 2023: 8 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 2,898 hectares (29.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mongkhet (2,913 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.