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Mongping fire, 24 March 2019 Mongping, Monghsat

Out · last detection 14 Apr 2019, 07:08 UTC

The fire started on 24 March 2019 in Mongping, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,833 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 2 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

Burnt area
22,833ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
24 Mar 2019 – 13 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
24 Mar
2019
Heat detections
1,120
in a single hotspot: 179 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
12.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Mar13 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

24252627282930311234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 23 Apr.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,043 ha in 2016, 6,588 ha in 2017, 997 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,629 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongping where it started
    22,901 ha reached on 18 Mar
    3.8 %
  2. Monghsat
    14 ha
    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)
24 Mar 33.1 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar 33.7 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Mar 33.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Mar 32.9 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Mar 30.0 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Mar 31.7 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Mar 31.8 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Mar 32.6 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Apr 33.2 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Apr 32.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Apr 32.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Apr 33.5 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Apr 33.5 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Apr 33.3 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Apr 34.0 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Apr 33.6 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Apr 33.9 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Apr 34.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Apr 33.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Apr 34.0 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Apr 35.6 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Apr after 36.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr after 35.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Apr after 36.3 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr after 36.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Apr after 35.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Apr after 36.5 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
20 Apr after 35.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
21 Apr after 35.5 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
22 Apr after 35.5 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Apr after 35.3 °C 24 % 35 km/h 1.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Mar 2019
After · 20 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 · 1,120Every 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 Mongping fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 March 2019 and 13 April 2019: 21 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 22,833 hectares (228.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongping (22,901 ha, 3.8 %); Monghsat (14 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.