Mongnai fire, 19 March 2026 Mongton, Mongping, Mongnai
The fire started on 19 March 2026 in Mongnai, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 62,950 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 806 with a page). Number 6 in Myanmar in 2026, of 480.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 62,950ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 19 Mar 2026 – 11 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 2,328
- in a single hotspot: 190 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 514MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,243 ha in 2016, 4,391 ha in 2017, 1,026 ha in 2018, 13,293 ha in 2019, 14,984 ha in 2020, 8,695 ha in 2021, 16,936 ha in 2023, 7,193 ha in 2024, 1,918 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 38,166 ha that had burned before.
- 7,937 ha Mongton fire, March 2019 12,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,363 ha Mongping fire, March 2016 5,509 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,440 ha Mongton fire, March 2023 4,490 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,089 ha Mongton fire, March 2023 5,645 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,991 ha Mongton fire, March 2020 4,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,470 ha Mongton fire, March 2023 2,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,405 ha Mongton fire, March 2017 2,822 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,252 ha Mongton fire, March 2016 3,474 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
43,933 ha reached on 20 Mar8.4 %
-
17,529 ha reached on 20 Mar2.9 %
-
Mongnai where it started1,875 ha reached on 19 Mar0.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.06 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Mar | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Mar | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Mar | 31.1 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 2.8 mm | Low 10 |
| 23 Mar | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Mar | 32.9 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 25 Mar | 33.9 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Mar | 33.5 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Mar | 34.4 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Mar | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Mar | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Mar | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Mar | 34.6 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Apr | 34.9 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Apr | 35.0 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Apr | 36.4 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Apr | 35.9 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Apr | 35.4 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr | 34.8 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Apr | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 5.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 8 Apr | 34.8 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Apr | 31.7 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Apr | 32.9 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Apr | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 13 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Apr after | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Apr after | 36.4 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Apr after | 35.9 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Apr after | 35.7 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Apr after | 36.0 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Apr after | 33.0 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Apr after | 37.4 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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 123 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 82: 5.5 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 · 2,328Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,542 haMongton19 March 2019 · 24 days · 30 km away
- 41,742 haMongton21 March 2026 · 30 days · 36 km away
- 16,091 haMongton20 March 2026 · 23 days · 37 km away
- 23,002 haMongping20 March 2026 · 24 days · 39 km away
- 27,764 haMongping21 March 2023 · 19 days · 40 km away
- 22,833 haMongping18 March 2019 · 33 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongnai fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 March 2026 to 11 April 2026 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 March 2026 to 4 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 62,950 hectares (629.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mongton (43,933 ha, 8.4 %); Mongping (17,529 ha, 2.9 %); Mongnai (1,875 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
- 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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 4 April 2026 → 11 April 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 March 2026 to 4 April 2026. 2,328 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.