Mongpan fire, February 2026 Mongpan, Mongton
The fire started on 28 February 2026 in Mongpan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,159 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 66th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 71 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.1 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
- 7,159ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 28 Feb 2026 – 10 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 148
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 362MW
- sum of detected power
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 11 Mar.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 62 ha in 2016, 2,047 ha in 2017, 23 ha in 2018, 2,609 ha in 2019, 5,000 ha in 2020, 571 ha in 2021, 1,973 ha in 2023, 1,220 ha in 2024, 3,342 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,601 ha that had burned before.
- 2,985 ha Mongpan fire, March 2025 5,459 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,254 ha Mongpan fire, February 2020 2,925 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,097 ha Langkho fire, February 2020 4,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,694 ha Mongpan fire, March 2019 20,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 971 ha Mongpan fire, February 2023 2,114 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 675 ha Mongton fire, February 2024 21,035 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 586 ha Mongton fire, March 2020 4,252 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 491 ha Mongpan fire, February 2017 3,164 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mongpan where it started6,846 ha reached on 1 Mar2.5 %
-
342 ha reached on 5 Mar0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Feb | 32.4 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 1 Mar | 32.4 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Mar | 32.2 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Mar | 33.0 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Mar | 33.2 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Mar | 33.9 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 Mar | 33.2 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Mar | 35.0 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Mar | 35.8 °C | 32 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Mar | 35.9 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Mar | 31.3 °C | 55 % | 36 km/h | 6.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 11 Mar after | 29.6 °C | 51 % | 25 km/h | 3.8 mm | Very low 2 |
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 4 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 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 · 148Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,728 haMongpan8 March 2019 · 18 days · 4 km away
- 21,661 haMongton21 March 2026 · 17 days · 6 km away
- 21,035 haMongton16 February 2024 · 30 days · 11 km away
- 20,047 haMongton22 March 2026 · 23 days · 23 km away
- 13,153 haLangkho20 March 2026 · 15 days · 25 km away
- 11,077 haPai28 February 2020 · 26 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongpan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2026 and 10 March 2026: 11 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 7,159 hectares (71.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongpan (6,846 ha, 2.5 %); Mongton (342 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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
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.