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Pauk fire, March 2019 Tilin, Pauk

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2019, 20:08 UTC

The fire started on 9 March 2019 in Pauk, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,430 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 78th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 40 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,430ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
9 Mar 2019 – 21 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Mar
2019
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
2
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
438MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161719202122

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
34km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 979 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Tilin
    2,363 ha reached on 11 Mar
    1.8 %
  2. Pauk where it started
    1,082 ha reached on 8 Mar
    0.4 %

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)
9 Mar 26.9 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
10 Mar 29.4 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
11 Mar 29.4 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 Mar 31.8 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
13 Mar 32.2 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
14 Mar 32.5 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
15 Mar 32.7 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
16 Mar 31.9 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Mar 32.4 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Mar 32.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Mar 32.9 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Mar 31.5 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Mar 32.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Mar after 33.0 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
23 Mar after 33.6 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Mar after 33.3 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Mar after 33.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Mar after 33.9 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Mar after 33.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Mar after 31.8 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Mar after 33.5 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Mar after 35.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Mar after 33.6 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Mar 2019
After · 28 Mar 2019

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 · 143Every 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 Pauk fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 March 2019 and 21 March 2019: 13 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 3,430 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tilin (2,363 ha, 1.8 %); Pauk (1,082 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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.