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Shwegu fire, 10 April 2023 Shwegu

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2023, 06:46 UTC

The fire started on 10 April 2023 in Shwegu, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,689 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Kachin since 2016 (of 23 with a page). Number 122 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.1 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
2,689ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
10 Apr 2023 – 20 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Apr
2023
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
378MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1011121415161718192021

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
29km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 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. Shwegu where it started
    2,706 ha reached on 10 Apr
    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)
10 Apr 37.7 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Apr 37.6 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Apr 37.7 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Apr 37.7 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Apr 37.7 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 38.3 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Apr 39.6 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Apr 38.9 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Apr 38.5 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Apr 38.9 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Apr 38.8 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.7 mm High 30
21 Apr after 37.2 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.8 mm High 25
22 Apr after 32.7 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Apr after 34.2 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
24 Apr after 34.7 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
25 Apr after 36.5 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
26 Apr after 36.7 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Apr after 37.8 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Apr after 37.6 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
29 Apr after 36.8 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Apr after 33.6 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Apr 2023
After · 27 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 · 92Every 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 Shwegu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2023 and 20 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 2,689 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Shwegu (2,706 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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.