Mongpan fire, 19 March 2026 Mongpan
The fire started on 19 March 2026 in Mongpan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,037 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 311th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 205 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
The power measured by the satellite is low (21.5 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
- 3,037ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 19 Mar 2026 – 31 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 62
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 150MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 110 ha in 2016, 1,172 ha in 2018, 796 ha in 2019, 723 ha in 2020, 1,639 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,566 ha that had burned before.
- 1,639 ha Mongpan fire, April 2023 2,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 305 ha Mongpan fire, April 2018 2,167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 110 ha Mongpan fire, March 2016 3,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mongpan where it started3,052 ha reached on 17 Mar1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 33.5 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Mar | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 21 Mar | 32.3 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Mar | 32.1 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 Mar | 33.3 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Mar | 33.8 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 25 Mar | 34.2 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Mar | 34.3 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Mar | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Mar | 35.9 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Mar | 34.2 °C | 25 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Mar | 35.2 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Mar | 35.7 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Apr after | 35.9 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Apr after | 35.9 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Apr after | 37.2 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Apr after | 36.3 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Apr after | 36.5 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr after | 35.0 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Apr after | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Apr after | 33.3 °C | 32 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
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 27 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 100 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 67: 4.5 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 · 62Every 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 · 18 km away
- 16,091 haMongton20 March 2026 · 16 days · 21 km away
- 21,661 haMongton21 March 2026 · 17 days · 26 km away
- 20,047 haMongton22 March 2026 · 23 days · 29 km away
- 21,035 haMongton16 February 2024 · 30 days · 32 km away
- 12,542 haMongton26 March 2019 · 16 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongpan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2026 and 31 March 2026: 13 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 3,037 hectares (30.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mongpan (3,052 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 48 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
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.