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MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Tangyan fire, May 2019 Tangyan

Out · last detection 12 May 2019, 19:12 UTC

The fire started on 7 May 2019 in Tangyan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 131th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 20 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

Burnt area
5,036ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
7 May 2019 – 12 May 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
7 May
2019
Heat detections
194
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 May12 May

How it evolved, day by day

789101112

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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. Tangyan where it started
    5,051 ha reached on 7 May
    1.0 %

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)
7 May 29.6 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 May 31.6 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 May 32.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 May 32.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 May 31.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 May 29.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
13 May after 29.7 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
14 May after 27.9 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
15 May after 30.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 May after 29.1 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 May after 30.4 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 May after 29.8 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 May after 32.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 May after 33.0 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
21 May after 30.7 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 May after 29.9 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Apr 2019
After · 19 May 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 · 194Every 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 Tangyan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 May 2019 and 12 May 2019: 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 5,036 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tangyan (5,051 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.