Mongton fire, 2 April 2024 Mongton
The fire started on 2 April 2024 in Mongton, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,739 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 397th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 84 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2024, of 161.
- Burnt area
- 2,739ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 2 Apr 2024 – 9 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Apr
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 87
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 250 ha in 2016, 2,623 ha in 2019, 1,935 ha in 2020, 1,100 ha in 2021, 2,261 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,748 ha that had burned before.
- 2,623 ha Mongton fire, March 2019 12,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,261 ha Mongton fire, March 2023 5,645 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,935 ha Mongton fire, March 2020 4,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,100 ha Mongton fire, March 2021 2,538 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 30 ha Mongton fire, March 2016 3,474 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mongton where it started2,758 ha reached on 27 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Apr | 35.5 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Apr | 36.8 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Apr | 36.9 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Apr | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Apr | 36.6 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Apr | 36.5 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Apr | 36.9 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Apr after | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Apr after | 35.3 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Apr after | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Apr after | 32.2 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Apr after | 32.6 °C | 32 % | 44 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.
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 10 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 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 · 87Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,542 haMongton26 March 2019 · 16 days · 1 km away
- 41,742 haMongton21 March 2026 · 25 days · 10 km away
- 16,091 haMongton20 March 2026 · 16 days · 18 km away
- 10,446 haMongping23 March 2023 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 62,950 haMongnai19 March 2026 · 17 days · 29 km away
- 34,370 haMonghsat19 March 2026 · 14 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongton fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 April 2024 and 9 April 2024: 8 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 2,739 hectares (27.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mongton (2,758 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.