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Shadaw fire, March 2016 Shadaw, Loikaw

Out · last detection 2 Apr 2016, 06:25 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2016 in Shadaw, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 33th largest in Kayah since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 9 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016, of 119.

Burnt area
6,404ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
23 Mar 2016 – 1 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2016
Heat detections
246
in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar1 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728293112

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 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. Shadaw where it started
    5,006 ha reached on 16 Mar
    2.3 %
  2. Loikaw
    1,440 ha reached on 16 Mar
    0.9 %

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)
23 Mar 37.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Mar 37.5 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Mar 37.7 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
26 Mar 37.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Mar 37.1 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Mar 37.0 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Mar 36.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Mar 34.7 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Mar 38.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Apr 36.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Apr after 36.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Apr after 37.9 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Apr after 38.3 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Apr after 38.2 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Apr after 38.3 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Apr after 39.3 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Apr after 38.8 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm High 32
9 Apr after 39.0 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.9 mm High 30
10 Apr after 39.6 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Apr after 41.5 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2016
After · 8 Apr 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 · 246Every 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 Shadaw fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2016 and 1 April 2016: 10 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 6,404 hectares (64.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Shadaw (5,006 ha, 2.3 %); Loikaw (1,440 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 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.