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MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Ngape fire, April 2023 Ngape

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2023, 19:09 UTC

The fire started on 6 April 2023 in Ngape, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,614 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 71th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 69 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

Burnt area
3,614ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
6 Apr 2023 – 16 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Apr
2023
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Apr16 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
46km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 20 Apr.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 215 ha in 2017, 13 ha in 2019, 601 ha in 2020, 828 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,436 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ngape where it started
    3,634 ha reached on 6 Apr
    2.7 %

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)
6 Apr 34.4 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Apr 36.1 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Apr 37.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Apr 36.8 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Apr 36.8 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Apr 36.1 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Apr 36.1 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Apr 34.7 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Apr 36.5 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Apr 36.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr 32.2 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
17 Apr after 34.1 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
18 Apr after 34.7 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
19 Apr after 33.8 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
20 Apr after 34.1 °C 44 % 44 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Mar 2023
After · 23 Apr 2023

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 · 128Every 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 Ngape fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 April 2023 and 16 April 2023: 11 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 3,614 hectares (36.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ngape (3,634 ha, 2.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.