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Mongpan fire, 27 March 2019 Mongpan, Mongnai

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2019, 19:06 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2019 in Mongpan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 197th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 27 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.7 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
3,978ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
27 Mar 2019 – 5 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Mar
2019
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
280MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar5 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311345

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
39km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongpan where it started
    3,035 ha reached on 21 Mar
    1.1 %
  2. Mongnai
    966 ha reached on 26 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
27 Mar 36.4 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Mar 34.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Mar 35.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Mar 36.2 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Mar 36.8 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Apr 37.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Apr 36.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Apr 37.0 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Apr 37.7 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Apr 37.7 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Apr after 37.3 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Apr after 37.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Apr after 37.9 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Apr after 37.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Apr after 38.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Apr after 38.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Apr after 37.7 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Apr after 39.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Apr after 39.7 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Apr after 39.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2019
After · 12 Apr 2019

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 · 112Every 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 27 March 2019 and 5 April 2019: 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 3,978 hectares (39.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongpan (3,035 ha, 1.1 %); Mongnai (966 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.