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Aek Phnum fire, March 2016 Aek Phnum, Sangkae, Bakan

Out · last detection 16 May 2016, 05:58 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2016 in Aek Phnum, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 59 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 64,197 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Battambang since 2016 (of 26 with a page). The largest in Cambodia in 2016, of 116.

Burnt area
64,197ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
59days
18 Mar 2016 – 15 May 2016
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
18 Mar
2016
Heat detections
7,568
in a single hotspot: 756 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
147.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar15 May

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
41km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 16 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Aek Phnum where it started
    21,548 ha reached on 11 Mar
    20 %
  2. Sangkae
    21,443 ha reached on 11 Mar
    18 %
  3. Bakan
    11,975 ha reached on 12 Mar
    7.7 %
  4. Moung Ruessei
    9,195 ha reached on 11 Mar
    6.5 %

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)
18 Mar 39.0 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Mar 39.5 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Mar 40.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Mar 39.9 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Mar 39.6 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Mar 39.4 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Mar 39.3 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Mar 33.9 °C 53 % 36 km/h 5.4 mm Low 6
26 Mar 34.5 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Mar 34.8 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 Mar 33.7 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Mar 36.6 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Mar 36.2 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
31 Mar 38.1 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
1 Apr 37.2 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm High 24
2 Apr 37.8 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
3 Apr 37.6 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Apr 39.1 °C 37 % 27 km/h 2.9 mm Moderate 17
5 Apr 38.6 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
6 Apr 40.9 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Apr 40.4 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Apr 39.5 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
9 Apr 39.8 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Apr 41.4 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Apr 41.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Apr 41.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Apr 41.9 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Apr 41.4 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Apr 41.9 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Apr 41.4 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr 41.0 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Apr 41.2 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Apr 39.1 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm High 31
20 Apr 37.8 °C 45 % 23 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 17
21 Apr 39.5 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Apr 39.0 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
23 Apr 41.1 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Apr 41.3 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Apr 40.9 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Apr 41.6 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Apr 41.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Apr 41.3 °C 35 % 29 km/h 2.8 mm High 24
29 Apr 37.0 °C 52 % 30 km/h 16.8 mm Very low 3
30 Apr 34.2 °C 60 % 21 km/h 22.5 mm Very low 1
1 May 36.9 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
2 May 38.2 °C 47 % 27 km/h 2.3 mm Low 7
3 May 38.7 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 13
4 May 38.5 °C 46 % 30 km/h 3.8 mm Low 6
5 May 38.6 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 12
6 May 38.2 °C 48 % 23 km/h 1.4 mm Low 11
7 May 39.5 °C 37 % 31 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 12
8 May 37.5 °C 49 % 26 km/h 3.1 mm Low 6
9 May 38.7 °C 44 % 31 km/h 4.1 mm Low 7
10 May 39.9 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
11 May 40.6 °C 39 % 33 km/h 3.2 mm Low 11
12 May 39.3 °C 45 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
13 May 40.1 °C 35 % 29 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 17
14 May 37.9 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 May 37.7 °C 43 % 27 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 14
16 May after 36.0 °C 53 % 26 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2016
After · 22 May 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 · 7,568Every 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 Cambodia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aek Phnum fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2016 and 15 May 2016: 59 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 64,197 hectares (642.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Aek Phnum (21,548 ha, 20 %); Sangkae (21,443 ha, 18 %); Bakan (11,975 ha, 7.7 %); Moung Ruessei (9,195 ha, 6.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cambodia (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (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.