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Mongpan fire, 15 March 2017 Langkho, Mongpan

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2017, 19:56 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2017 in Mongpan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,277 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 277th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 47 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2017, of 118.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.7 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
3,277ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Mar 2017 – 22 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Mar
2017
Heat detections
108
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
405MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar22 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122

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
52km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,637 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Langkho
    2,005 ha reached on 16 Mar
    0.4 %
  2. Mongpan where it started
    1,286 ha reached on 15 Mar
    0.5 %

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)
15 Mar 35.9 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Mar 36.6 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Mar 36.2 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Mar 36.1 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Mar 35.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Mar 34.5 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Mar 33.3 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Mar 34.1 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Mar after 36.5 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Mar after 36.5 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar after 37.0 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar after 37.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Mar after 36.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Mar after 36.3 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Mar after 36.6 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Mar after 36.6 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Mar after 35.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Apr after 35.2 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2017
After · 29 Mar 2017

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 · 108Every 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 Mongpan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2017 and 22 March 2017: 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 3,277 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Langkho (2,005 ha, 0.4 %); Mongpan (1,286 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.