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Mongton fire, 23 March 2019 Mongton, Monghsat

Out · last detection 30 Mar 2019, 19:18 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2019 in Mongton, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,895 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 96th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 15 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

Burnt area
5,895ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
23 Mar 2019 – 29 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2019
Heat detections
262
in a single hotspot: 330 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar29 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

232425262930

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,934 ha in 2016, 2,983 ha in 2017, 125 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,085 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongton where it started
    5,060 ha reached on 20 Mar
    1.0 %
  2. Monghsat
    865 ha reached on 20 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
23 Mar 33.5 °C 23 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Mar 35.0 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Mar 34.5 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar 35.2 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Mar 34.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Mar 32.5 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Mar 33.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Mar after 33.6 °C 24 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Mar after 34.3 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Apr after 34.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Apr after 34.7 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Apr after 34.2 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
4 Apr after 35.6 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Apr after 35.3 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Apr after 35.0 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Apr after 35.5 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Apr after 35.7 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2019
After · 5 Apr 2019

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 · 262Every 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 23 March 2019 and 29 March 2019: 7 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 5,895 hectares (59.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongton (5,060 ha, 1.0 %); Monghsat (865 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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.