Skip to content
worldfires
MM · Myanmar · –

Myawaddy fire, February 2025 Myawaddy

Out · last detection 20 Feb 2025, 07:01 UTC

The fire started on 14 February 2025 in Myawaddy, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,197 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 108th largest in Kayin since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 111 in Myanmar in 2025, of 133.

Burnt area
2,197ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Feb 2025 – 20 Feb 2025
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Feb
2025
Heat detections
65
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
142MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Feb20 Feb
20 Feb 2025

How it evolved, day by day

14 Feb 2025 · 2 MW · 1 16 Feb 2025 · 5 MW · 3 17 Feb 2025 · 463 MW · 41 18 Feb 2025 · 184 MW · 9 19 Feb 2025 · 116 MW · 6 20 Feb 2025 · 80 MW · 5
14 Feb 17 Feb 19 Feb

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
38km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 21 Feb.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,868 ha in 2016, 1,430 ha in 2017, 768 ha in 2018, 1,659 ha in 2019, 1,954 ha in 2020, 1,758 ha in 2021, 453 ha in 2022, 1,581 ha in 2023, 1,315 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,209 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4% of the area of London (22 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Myawaddy where it started
    2,032 ha reached on 16 Feb
    0.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.16 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.16 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 24 % of the area in Myanmar

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 Feb 32.1 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Feb 32.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Feb 33.5 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Feb 33.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Feb 33.1 °C 41 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Feb 31.5 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
20 Feb 30.5 °C 57 % 19 km/h 1.6 mm Low 8
21 Feb after 29.4 °C 60 % 22 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 4

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.9, a minimum humidity of 38% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.

FWI at the start 25.9
Minimum humidity 38 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Umphang fire, March 2020
1,430 ha 23 days FWI 24.5 Min. humidity 39 % 28 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
2,441 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 20 of 33 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,197 ha against a median of 2,441 ha) and lasted 7 days, against 11 days.

In 13 of 33, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.9 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

3.0 mmfirst rain
21 Febthe day after it ended
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Feb, and on 21 Feb 3.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 33, with a median of 1.9 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Feb 2025
After · 27 Feb 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 20 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak68 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM1070 µg/m³
Optical depth1.13
14 Feb16 Feb18 Feb20 Feb22 Feb
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 65Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Myawaddy fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 February 2025 to 20 February 2025 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 February 2025 to 20 February 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,197 hectares (22.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Myawaddy (2,032 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 33. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 2,441 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 13 of 33, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.9 mm.

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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 16 February 2025 → 14 February 2025.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 February 2025 to 20 February 2025. 65 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.