Burned area
satellite only4,418ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 25 Mar 2022 – 12 Apr 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MM · Myanmar · –
Paletwa fire, 25 March 2022 Paletwa
Out · last detection 12 Apr 2022, 06:56 UTC
The fire started on 25 March 2022 in Paletwa, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,418 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 51th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 209 with a page). Number 14 in Myanmar in 2022, of 77.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only19days
25 Mar 2022 to 12 Apr 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 12 Apr 2022, 06:56 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only25 Mar 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 25 Mar 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only169
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 154 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 25 Mar 2022 – 12 Apr 2022
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,928MW
Total radiative power on 2 April 2022; hotspots that day: 119.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 2 Apr 2022
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model30.7FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 1.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 25 Mar 2022, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model39.8°C · 27% RH
High of 39.8 °C and minimum humidity of 27% on 5 April 2022; gusts of 43 km/h on 11 April 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 25 Mar 2022 – 12 Apr 2022
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 250people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.19 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 5 April 2022 → 12 April 2022.
-
logStart date: 31 March 2022 → 25 March 2022.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 4,418 ha
- Dates
- 25 Mar 2022 – 12 Apr 2022
- Name
- Paletwa
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/paletwa-2022-03-4?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire paletwa-2022-03-4.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-03-25 | 9 | 150 | 37.4 | 23.1 | 34 | 10.3 | 32.4 | 0.5 | 30.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-03-26 | 11 | 209 | 35.6 | 22.6 | 44 | 9.7 | 28.4 | 0 | 29.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-03-27 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 24.4 | 45 | 7.8 | 28.1 | 2.6 | 9.3 | bajo | 1 |
| 2022-03-28 | 1 | 3 | 38.3 | 24.3 | 29 | 10.9 | 33.8 | 0.6 | 28.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-03-29 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 24.3 | 33 | 9.6 | 22.7 | 0.1 | 27.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-03-30 | 0 | 0 | 36.4 | 24 | 38 | 7.1 | 27.4 | 1 | 20.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-03-31 | 6 | 60 | 37.6 | 24.5 | 31 | 10.4 | 32 | 0 | 29.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-01 | 1 | 1 | 38.7 | 23.7 | 30 | 10.5 | 28.8 | 0 | 31.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-02 | 119 | 2,928 | 37.2 | 23.8 | 39 | 10.4 | 33.1 | 0 | 31.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-03 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 24.1 | 47 | 11.3 | 41 | 1.4 | 17.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-04-04 | 0 | 0 | 34.9 | 25 | 51 | 10.9 | 34.2 | 2.7 | 8.7 | bajo | 1 |
| 2022-04-05 | 12 | 312 | 39.8 | 25.1 | 27 | 12.4 | 38.5 | 0 | 31.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-06 | 5 | 43 | 38.4 | 24.9 | 30 | 13.9 | 41 | 0 | 33.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-07 | 0 | 0 | 39.7 | 23.3 | 29 | 12.6 | 38.2 | 0 | 34 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-08 | 1 | 3 | 39.7 | 23.9 | 27 | 13.7 | 42.5 | 0 | 36.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-09 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 23 | 31 | 12.2 | 36.4 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-10 | 0 | 0 | 37.7 | 23.6 | 33 | 10.4 | 31 | 0 | 34.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-11 | 0 | 0 | 38.8 | 23.7 | 34 | 12.1 | 42.8 | 0.2 | 36.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-12 | 4 | 39 | 38.4 | 24.2 | 35 | 12.5 | 36 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-04-13 | 0 | 0 | 38.5 | 24.5 | 36 | 11.2 | 34.6 | 0 | 34.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-14 | 0 | 0 | 38.3 | 24.4 | 42 | 13.1 | 40 | 0.4 | 33.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-15 | 0 | 0 | 37.4 | 24.9 | 47 | 11.9 | 35.3 | 0.4 | 29.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-16 | 0 | 0 | 38.9 | 24.8 | 39 | 13.6 | 38.5 | 0.7 | 29.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-17 | 0 | 0 | 39.8 | 25.1 | 36 | 13 | 41 | 0.2 | 32.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-18 | 0 | 0 | 40.4 | 25 | 37 | 12.3 | 36 | 0.8 | 30.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-19 | 0 | 0 | 39.9 | 25.6 | 31 | 13.2 | 42.5 | 0.2 | 35.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-20 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 22.7 | 49 | 7.7 | 29.9 | 0.1 | 25 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-04-21 | 0 | 0 | 34.3 | 21.6 | 47 | 9.6 | 31.7 | 0.8 | 20.6 | moderado | 0 |
| 2022-04-22 | 0 | 0 | 35.5 | 24.2 | 49 | 9.5 | 31.7 | 1.5 | 15.1 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 4,418ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 25 Mar 2022 – 12 Apr 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 169
- in a single hotspot: 154 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 375MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
25 Mar12 Apr
12 Apr 2022
How it evolved, day by day
25 Mar
28 Mar
2 Apr
8 Apr
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
40°high
43km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 22 Apr.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,954 ha in 2016, 952 ha in 2017, 1,187 ha in 2018, 2,195 ha in 2019, 3,341 ha in 2020, 3,380 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,112 ha that had burned before.
- 3,341 ha Paletwa fire, March 2020 43,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,170 ha Paletwa fire, March 2021 53,795 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,870 ha Paletwa fire, March 2016 2,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,615 ha Paletwa fire, April 2019 2,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,187 ha Paletwa fire, March 2018 2,515 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 580 ha Paletwa fire, March 2019 6,991 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 84 ha Paletwa fire, March 2016 2,917 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Paletwa where it started4,443 ha reached on 25 Mar0.6 %
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 2020Built-up area0.19 ha
Residents≈ 250
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.19 hectares of built-up land and about 250 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 37.4 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Mar | 35.6 °C | 44 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Mar | 34.6 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 2.6 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 Mar | 38.3 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Mar | 36.7 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Mar | 36.4 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 Mar | 37.6 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Apr | 38.7 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Apr | 37.2 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 3 Apr | 35.1 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Apr | 34.9 °C | 51 % | 34 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 9 |
| 5 Apr | 39.8 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr | 38.4 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Apr | 39.7 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Apr | 39.7 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Apr | 38.0 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Apr | 37.7 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Apr | 38.8 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Apr | 38.4 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Apr after | 38.5 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Apr after | 38.3 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Apr after | 37.4 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Apr after | 38.9 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Apr after | 39.8 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Apr after | 40.4 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Apr after | 39.9 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Apr after | 33.5 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 15 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 30.7, a minimum humidity of 34% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.
FWI at the start
30.7
Minimum humidity
34 %
Days without rain
1
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Paletwa fire, 25 March 2022
4,418 ha
19 days
FWI 30.7
Min. humidity 34 %
Paletwa fire, April 2016
5,621 ha
11 days
FWI 29.3
Min. humidity 33 %
40 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 14 Apr.
Kanpetlet fire, April 2016
3,642 ha
14 days
FWI 31.5
Min. humidity 35 %
137 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.5 mm on 22 Apr.
Kanpetlet fire, April 2019
3,056 ha
17 days
FWI 29.8
Min. humidity 32 %
128 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Chawngte fire, March 2020
5,411 ha
8 days
FWI 29.0
Min. humidity 36 %
99 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Chawngte fire, March 2020
9,905 ha
7 days
FWI 30.7
Min. humidity 31 %
103 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 10 days
- median duration
- 3,056 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.7 mm
- rain at the end (median; 13 of 27 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (4,418 ha against a median of 3,056 ha) and lasted 19 days, against 10 days.
In 14 of 27, 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 1.7 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
1.5 mmfirst rain
22 Apr10 days after it ended
43km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 12 Apr, and on 22 Apr 1.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 27, with a median of 1.7 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 18 Mar 2022
After · 19 Apr 2022
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 169Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Paletwa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 March 2022 to 12 April 2022 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 March 2022 to 5 April 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,418 hectares (44.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Paletwa (4,443 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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: 27. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 3,056 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 14 of 27, 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 1.7 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 5 April 2022 → 12 April 2022.
- Start date: 31 March 2022 → 25 March 2022.
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
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 31 March 2022 to 5 April 2022. 169 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.