Mongping fire, 17 March 2021 Mongping
The fire started on 17 March 2021 in Mongping, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,808 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 145th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 30 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2021, of 159.
- Burnt area
- 4,808ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 17 Mar 2021 – 21 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 146
- in a single hotspot: 115 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 23 Mar.
This area had burned before
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,112 ha in 2016, 794 ha in 2019, 1,690 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,532 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mongping where it started4,842 ha reached on 17 Mar0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Mar | 32.5 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Mar | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Mar | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Mar | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Mar after | 31.5 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Mar after | 29.8 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 11 |
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.
Detections table · 146Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 44,192 haKunhing18 March 2026 · 21 days · 24 km away
- 18,378 haMongping18 March 2020 · 19 days · 27 km away
- 8,582 haMongping21 March 2026 · 13 days · 31 km away
- 9,790 haMongping30 March 2024 · 12 days · 33 km away
- 11,132 haMongping20 March 2021 · 13 days · 34 km away
- 10,947 haMongping25 March 2023 · 8 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongping fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 March 2021 and 21 March 2021: 5 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 4,808 hectares (48.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mongping (4,842 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.