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

Mongpan fire, 19 February 2020 Mongpan, Langkho

Out · last detection 25 Feb 2020, 18:53 UTC

The fire started on 19 February 2020 in Mongpan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,126 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 191th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 46 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.6 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
4,126ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Feb 2020 – 25 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Feb
2020
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
288MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Feb25 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
35km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 597 ha in 2016, 2,972 ha in 2017, 3,165 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,787 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongpan where it started
    4,099 ha reached on 19 Feb
    1.5 %
  2. Langkho
    42 ha reached on 27 Feb
    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)
19 Feb 34.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Feb 34.3 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Feb 34.4 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Feb 33.5 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Feb 32.8 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Feb 32.6 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Feb 33.8 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Feb after 34.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Feb after 32.8 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Feb after 33.5 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Feb after 34.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Mar after 35.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Mar after 35.6 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Mar after 34.8 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
4 Mar after 34.3 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Mar after 35.3 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Mar after 35.6 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Feb 2020
After · 3 Mar 2020

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 · 115Every 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 19 February 2020 and 25 February 2020: 7 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 4,126 hectares (41.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongpan (4,099 ha, 1.5 %); Langkho (42 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.