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Mongton fire, 17 March 2016 Mongton, Monghsat

Out · last detection 28 Mar 2016, 18:48 UTC

The fire started on 17 March 2016 in Mongton, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,486 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 168th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 20 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016, of 119.

Burnt area
4,486ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
17 Mar 2016 – 27 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Mar
2016
Heat detections
178
in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Mar27 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
42km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongton where it started
    3,907 ha reached on 16 Mar
    0.8 %
  2. Monghsat
    601 ha reached on 25 Mar
    0.1 %

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 34.0 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Mar 33.4 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Mar 33.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Mar 33.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Mar 34.4 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar 33.9 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar 33.9 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar 33.3 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Mar 30.1 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Mar 33.0 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Mar 31.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Mar after 32.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Mar after 33.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Mar after 31.5 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Mar after 34.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Apr after 33.3 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Apr after 32.3 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
3 Apr after 33.8 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Apr after 34.3 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Apr after 35.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Apr after 34.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Mar 2016
After · 3 Apr 2016

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 · 178Every 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 Mongton fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 March 2016 and 27 March 2016: 11 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 4,486 hectares (44.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongton (3,907 ha, 0.8 %); Monghsat (601 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.

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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.