Mongping fire, 20 March 2026 Mongping, Kunhing
The fire started on 20 March 2026 in Mongping, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,002 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 13 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 23,002ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 20 Mar 2026 – 5 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 651
- in a single hotspot: 270 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.5GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,418 ha in 2016, 4,905 ha in 2017, 4,205 ha in 2018, 11,921 ha in 2019, 15,263 ha in 2020, 11,111 ha in 2021, 1,523 ha in 2022, 16,778 ha in 2023, 12,887 ha in 2024, 3,222 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 21,302 ha that had burned before.
- 16,080 ha Mongping fire, March 2023 27,764 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,297 ha Mongping fire, March 2021 19,688 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,016 ha Mongping fire, March 2020 22,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,612 ha Mongping fire, March 2019 22,833 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,246 ha Mongping fire, March 2020 7,428 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,318 ha Mongping fire, March 2024 6,495 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,397 ha Mongping fire, April 2024 4,263 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,343 ha Mongping fire, April 2018 3,647 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mongping where it started23,072 ha reached on 20 Mar3.8 %
-
19 ha reached on 3 Apr0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 29.5 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Mar | 31.3 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 22 Mar | 28.0 °C | 42 % | 41 km/h | 5.9 mm | Very low 3 |
| 23 Mar | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 24 Mar | 29.7 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 25 Mar | 30.9 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 26 Mar | 30.7 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Mar | 31.3 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Mar | 33.1 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 29 Mar | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Mar | 32.2 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar | 31.4 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Apr | 31.9 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Apr | 33.6 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Apr | 33.4 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Apr | 32.7 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Apr after | 32.6 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 7 Apr after | 32.7 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 18 |
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 26 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 123 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 82: 5.5 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 · 651Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,688 haMongping15 March 2021 · 16 days · 7 km away
- 22,039 haMongping19 March 2020 · 15 days · 12 km away
- 27,764 haMongping22 March 2023 · 11 days · 14 km away
- 22,833 haMongping24 March 2019 · 21 days · 14 km away
- 19,234 haMongping20 March 2026 · 18 days · 24 km away
- 18,378 haMongping18 March 2020 · 19 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongping fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2026 and 5 April 2026: 17 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 23,002 hectares (230.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongping (23,072 ha, 3.8 %); Kunhing (19 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 42 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.