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MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Mongping fire, 30 March 2019 Mongping

Out · last detection 6 Apr 2019, 18:47 UTC

The fire started on 30 March 2019 in Mongping, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,468 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 249th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 37 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

Burnt area
3,468ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Mar 2019 – 6 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Mar
2019
Heat detections
124
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
781MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Mar6 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
39km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 498 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongping where it started
    3,485 ha reached on 26 Mar
    0.6 %

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)
30 Mar 33.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Mar 33.9 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Apr 34.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Apr 33.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
3 Apr 34.0 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Apr 34.9 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Apr 34.9 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Apr 34.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
7 Apr after 35.1 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 38
8 Apr after 35.0 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Apr after 35.0 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Apr after 35.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Apr after 34.8 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Apr after 35.5 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Apr after 36.8 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Apr after 37.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Apr after 36.7 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Apr after 37.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Mar 2019
After · 13 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 · 124Every 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 30 March 2019 and 6 April 2019: 8 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 3,468 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mongping (3,485 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.