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Thazi fire, March 2016 Yamethin, Thazi, Kalaw

Out · last detection 3 Apr 2016, 06:06 UTC

The fire started on 31 March 2016 in Thazi, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,277 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Mandalay since 2016 (of 72 with a page). Number 22 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016, of 119.

Burnt area
4,277ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
31 Mar 2016 – 2 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
31 Mar
2016
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Mar2 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

31123

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
44km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 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. Yamethin
    3,391 ha reached on 31 Mar
    1.6 %
  2. Thazi where it started
    580 ha reached on 26 Mar
    0.3 %
  3. Kalaw
    330 ha reached on 30 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
31 Mar 32.4 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Apr 31.2 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Apr 31.0 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Apr after 31.7 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Apr after 32.6 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Apr after 32.5 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Apr after 33.2 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Apr after 34.0 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Apr after 34.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
9 Apr after 35.3 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Apr after 35.9 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Apr after 36.8 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Apr after 33.9 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Mar 2016
After · 9 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 · 168Every 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 Thazi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 March 2016 and 2 April 2016: 3 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 4,277 hectares (42.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Yamethin (3,391 ha, 1.6 %); Thazi (580 ha, 0.3 %); Kalaw (330 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 44 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.