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Saw fire, March 2016 Saw, Sidoktaya

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2016, 19:38 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2016 in Saw, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 110th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 61 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016, of 119.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.6 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
2,754ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Mar 2016 – 19 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Mar
2016
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
361MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar19 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Saw where it started
    1,674 ha reached on 9 Mar
    0.9 %
  2. Sidoktaya
    1,095 ha reached on 14 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)
14 Mar 34.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Mar 34.0 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Mar 34.8 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Mar 34.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Mar 34.1 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Mar 32.3 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Mar after 32.1 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
21 Mar after 33.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Mar after 31.0 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Mar after 32.3 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar after 32.5 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Mar after 34.3 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Mar after 34.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Mar after 34.1 °C 34 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Mar after 32.6 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Mar after 31.2 °C 37 % 43 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.

Before · 7 Mar 2016
After · 26 Mar 2016

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 · 105Every 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 Saw fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2016 and 19 March 2016: 6 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 2,754 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saw (1,674 ha, 0.9 %); Sidoktaya (1,095 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.