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Thantlang fire, March 2021 Thantlang

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2021, 06:24 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2021 in Thantlang, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,348 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 102th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 57 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2021, of 159.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.4 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
3,348ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
23 Mar 2021 – 31 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2021
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
578MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272931

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
74km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Thantlang where it started
    3,369 ha reached on 23 Mar
    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)
23 Mar 29.0 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Mar 27.5 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Mar 27.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Mar 27.5 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Mar 28.2 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Mar 24.7 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Mar 25.8 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Mar 25.1 °C 43 % 74 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
31 Mar 25.0 °C 44 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Apr after 26.8 °C 42 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Apr after 28.1 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Apr after 29.4 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Apr after 28.4 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Apr after 25.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Apr after 27.0 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Apr after 27.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Apr after 27.6 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Apr after 27.9 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Apr after 28.1 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2021
After · 7 Apr 2021

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 · 109Every 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 Thantlang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2021 and 31 March 2021: 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 3,348 hectares (33.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Thantlang (3,369 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.