Wildfires in Malaysia in 2023
4 fires larger than 500 hectares in Malaysia in 2023, with 3,010 hectares burned according to their perimeters. Here is the whole year: what the official record says, when and where it burned and what the weather was like.
Only fires of 500 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.
The year in a few sentences
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According to Copernicus GWIS, 41,233 hectares burned in Malaysia in 2023: 23% of the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (179,170 ha).
Copernicus GWIS · See the data
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The worst week was 30 July to 5 August: 4,420 hectares burned in seven days, 11% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.
Copernicus GWIS · See the data
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The largest fire was the Telang Usan fire, which started on 31 July 2023 and burned 1,327 hectares: 44% of the area of the year's 4 fires with a page.
WorldFires · See the data · Open the fire page
Map of the year
Copernicus GWISMonth by month
Hectares within the perimeters by the month the fire started. Tap a month to see it on the map.
Week by week, against other years
Copernicus GWISCumulative burned area in 2023 over the lowest and highest of each week in the record since 2012, and its average. The bars below show what burned each week. Tap the chart to see a week. The average and the band are the Copernicus GWIS climatology for 2012–2025, which includes 2023 itself.
Every year since 2012
Copernicus GWISHectares burned per year in the official record. Tap a year to open its yearbook.
Cite this
Copy the sentences with their source and link. WorldFires data are CC BY 4.0: credit WorldFires and the original source.
- According to Copernicus GWIS, 41,233 hectares burned in Malaysia in 2023: 23% of the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (179,170 ha). - The worst week was 30 July to 5 August: 4,420 hectares burned in seven days, 11% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS. - The largest fire was the Telang Usan fire, which started on 31 July 2023 and burned 1,327 hectares: 44% of the area of the year's 4 fires with a page. WorldFires, “Wildfires in Malaysia in 2023”, https://worldfires.org/en/country/malaysia/2023 (accessed 6 November 2026). Sources: Copernicus GWIS, WorldFires.
Fires of 2023, largest first · 4
Burned area in 2023 (Copernicus Land, Sentinel-3)
According to Copernicus Land, 31,818 ha burned in 2023: rank 5 of 7 complete years (1 = the most burned). The average of those years is 56,958 ha.
The area the Sentinel-3 satellite sees burned each month, separate from the fire pages. It is the same source and the same method every year, so years can be compared with each other. It counts everything that burns, including crop and pasture burning, which is why it does not match the fire pages or the official statistics.
Where most burned in 2023
- Kedah 15,980 ha
- Perlis 4,649 ha
- Selangor 2,884 ha
- Sabah 2,774 ha
- Pahang 1,677 ha
- Perak 1,555 ha
- Sarawak 1,395 ha
- Johor 850 ha
- Terengganu 54 ha
Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, “Burnt Area 2018-present (raster 300 m), global, monthly – version 4”, monthly Sentinel-3 product, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34. Generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information; worldfires.org adds up, by country and region, the true area of the 300 m cells where a burn was detected. Latest month published: May 2026. Product page · Methodology
Sources and limits
Fire-page areas are satellite-measured perimeters and may differ from official statistics. The yearly and weekly record is the Copernicus GWIS estimate. The FWI is our own calculation from ERA5 at each fire's location: it is not an official danger warning.
Perimeters: Copernicus EFFIS and GWIS (and MTBS, NIFC or NBAC in North America). Hotspots: NASA FIRMS (VIIRS). Weather: Copernicus ERA5 via Open-Meteo. How it is calculated