Mongping fire, 24 March 2026 Mongping
The fire started on 24 March 2026 in Mongping, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,256 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 280th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 189 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 3,256ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 24 Mar 2026 – 4 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 78
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 831MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 275 ha in 2019, 1,974 ha in 2020, 866 ha in 2021, 1,720 ha in 2023, 1,216 ha in 2024, 64 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,666 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mongping where it started3,278 ha reached on 18 Mar0.5 %
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 | 30.4 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 25 Mar | 31.5 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Mar | 31.6 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Mar | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Mar | 33.9 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Mar | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Mar | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Mar | 32.1 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Apr | 32.4 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr | 33.1 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Apr | 34.4 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Apr | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Apr after | 33.8 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Apr after | 33.8 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 7 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 4.1 mm | Low 10 |
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 129 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 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 · 78Every 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 · 19 km away
- 18,378 haMongping18 March 2020 · 19 days · 20 km away
- 8,582 haMongping21 March 2026 · 13 days · 23 km away
- 11,132 haMongping20 March 2021 · 13 days · 25 km away
- 10,947 haMongping25 March 2023 · 8 days · 26 km away
- 9,790 haMongping30 March 2024 · 12 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongping fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 March 2026 and 4 April 2026: 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 3,256 hectares (32.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mongping (3,278 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.