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Ywangan fire, March 2017 Thazi, Ywangan

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2017, 06:24 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2017 in Ywangan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,728 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 150th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 15 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2017, of 118.

Burnt area
4,728ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
27 Mar 2017 – 5 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Mar
2017
Heat detections
155
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar5 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2728293112345

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
53km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 981 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Thazi
    2,438 ha reached on 22 Mar
    1.2 %
  2. Ywangan where it started
    2,311 ha reached on 21 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
27 Mar 30.1 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Mar 29.0 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Mar 30.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Mar 28.2 °C 32 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Mar 28.9 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Apr 29.5 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Apr 29.6 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Apr 28.5 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Apr 26.5 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Apr 29.2 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Apr after 30.1 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Apr after 31.6 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Apr after 32.7 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Apr after 33.2 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Apr after 32.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Apr after 30.8 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr after 31.2 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Apr after 30.5 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Apr after 27.5 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Apr after 27.6 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2017
After · 12 Apr 2017

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 · 155Every 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 Ywangan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2017 and 5 April 2017: 10 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 4,728 hectares (47.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thazi (2,438 ha, 1.2 %); Ywangan (2,311 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.