Mongton fire, 20 March 2026 Mongton, Mongpan
The fire started on 20 March 2026 in Mongton, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,091 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 25 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 16,091ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 20 Mar 2026 – 4 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 363
- in a single hotspot: 127 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,288 ha in 2016, 2,894 ha in 2017, 1,342 ha in 2018, 3,137 ha in 2019, 3,750 ha in 2020, 2,581 ha in 2021, 1,416 ha in 2022, 2,044 ha in 2023, 938 ha in 2024, 481 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,461 ha that had burned before.
- 1,981 ha Mongton fire, March 2020 2,364 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,653 ha Mongton fire, March 2019 2,687 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,176 ha Mongpan fire, March 2023 2,622 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 742 ha Mongpan fire, March 2016 3,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 713 ha Mongpan fire, March 2017 2,754 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Mongton fire, March 2020 3,036 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mongton where it started11,941 ha reached on 21 Mar2.3 %
-
4,239 ha reached on 22 Mar1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 29.1 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Mar | 30.5 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 22 Mar | 29.5 °C | 33 % | 46 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 Mar | 30.7 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 24 Mar | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Mar | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Mar | 31.3 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Mar | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 28 Mar | 33.2 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Mar | 31.3 °C | 23 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Mar | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Mar | 32.8 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Apr | 33.1 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Apr | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Apr | 34.3 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Apr | 33.3 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Apr after | 33.5 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Apr after | 31.9 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Apr after | 31.2 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Apr after | 32.2 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Apr after | 30.5 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Apr after | 30.6 °C | 31 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Apr after | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Apr after | 33.4 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Apr after | 33.9 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Apr after | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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 27 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 129 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.2 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 · 363Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongton fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2026 and 4 April 2026: 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 16,091 hectares (160.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mongton (11,941 ha, 2.3 %); Mongpan (4,239 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 55 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.
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.