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Tachileik fire, 8 April 2016 Tachileik, Monghpyak

Out · last detection 17 Apr 2016, 19:13 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2016 in Tachileik, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,074 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 69th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 7 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016, of 119.

Burnt area
7,074ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
8 Apr 2016 – 16 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Apr
2016
Heat detections
290
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr16 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 21 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Tachileik where it started
    6,467 ha reached on 1 Apr
    1.6 %
  2. Monghpyak
    649 ha reached on 5 Apr
    0.3 %

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)
8 Apr 33.6 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
9 Apr 33.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
10 Apr 35.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Apr 36.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Apr 36.2 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Apr 35.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Apr 35.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Apr 36.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr 34.8 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Apr after 34.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr after 35.2 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Apr after 33.6 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
20 Apr after 36.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Apr after 35.3 °C 32 % 40 km/h 2.1 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2016
After · 23 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 · 290Every 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 Tachileik fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2016 and 16 April 2016: 9 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 7,074 hectares (70.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tachileik (6,467 ha, 1.6 %); Monghpyak (649 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 42 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.