Mongping fire, 30 March 2024 Mongping, Kunhing
The fire started on 30 March 2024 in Mongping, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,790 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 48th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 11 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2024, of 161.
- Burnt area
- 9,790ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 30 Mar 2024 – 10 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 382
- in a single hotspot: 142 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.6GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 15 Apr.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,462 ha in 2016, 5,073 ha in 2017, 1,165 ha in 2018, 5,679 ha in 2019, 7,260 ha in 2020, 6,003 ha in 2021, 6,772 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,112 ha that had burned before.
- 6,426 ha Mongping fire, March 2020 18,378 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,003 ha Mongping fire, March 2021 11,132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,903 ha Mongping fire, March 2023 10,947 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,073 ha Mongping fire, April 2017 8,474 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,422 ha Mongping fire, April 2019 2,194 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,165 ha Mongping fire, April 2018 2,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,111 ha Mongping fire, March 2019 3,468 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,097 ha Mongping fire, March 2016 3,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mongping where it started9,814 ha reached on 27 Mar1.6 %
-
26 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 35.3 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Mar | 33.7 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Mar | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Mar | 34.5 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Mar | 37.0 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Apr | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 47 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Apr | 36.7 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Apr | 37.6 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Apr | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Apr | 38.5 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Apr | 40.0 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Apr | 39.5 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Apr | 39.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Apr | 39.8 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Apr | 38.9 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Apr after | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Apr after | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Apr after | 37.8 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Apr after | 37.0 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 23 |
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 10 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 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 · 382Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,378 haMongping18 March 2020 · 19 days · 6 km away
- 44,192 haKunhing18 March 2026 · 21 days · 10 km away
- 19,234 haMongping20 March 2026 · 18 days · 17 km away
- 23,002 haMongping20 March 2026 · 17 days · 19 km away
- 19,688 haMongping15 March 2021 · 16 days · 22 km away
- 22,039 haMongping19 March 2020 · 15 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongping fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 March 2024 and 10 April 2024: 12 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 9,790 hectares (97.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongping (9,814 ha, 1.6 %); Kunhing (26 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.