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Mongton fire, January 2020 Mongton, Langkho

Out · last detection 3 Feb 2020, 19:06 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2020 in Mongton, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,607 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 227th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 61 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.

Burnt area
3,607ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
19 Jan 2020 – 3 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Jan
2020
Heat detections
142
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
347MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262728293031123

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
41km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 478 ha in 2016, 637 ha in 2017, 1,355 ha in 2018, 1,749 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,603 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mongton where it started
    3,575 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.7 %
  2. Langkho
    43 ha reached on 27 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
19 Jan 29.6 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Jan 29.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Jan 30.5 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Jan 30.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jan 30.3 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jan 28.5 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Jan 27.1 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Jan 26.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Jan 25.8 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jan 26.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jan 27.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Jan 27.9 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Jan 27.6 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Feb 29.8 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Feb 29.9 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Feb 29.4 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Feb after 29.3 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Feb after 29.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Feb after 29.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Feb after 30.1 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Feb after 30.4 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Feb after 29.6 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
10 Feb after 29.1 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 21
11 Feb after 30.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Feb after 30.4 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Feb after 30.0 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2020
After · 10 Feb 2020

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 · 142Every 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 19 January 2020 and 3 February 2020: 16 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 3,607 hectares (36.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongton (3,575 ha, 0.7 %); Langkho (43 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.