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Aek Phnum fire, March 2019 Aek Phnum, Thma Koul, Preah Netr Preah

Out · last detection 15 Mar 2019, 06:28 UTC

The fire started on 4 March 2019 in Aek Phnum, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,842 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Battambang since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 18 in Cambodia in 2019, of 65.

Burnt area
3,842ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
4 Mar 2019 – 15 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
4 Mar
2019
Heat detections
197
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

46789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
41km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 59.1 mm on 24 Mar.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 87 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Aek Phnum where it started
    3,155 ha reached on 28 Feb
    2.9 %
  2. Thma Koul
    384 ha reached on 11 Mar
    0.4 %
  3. Preah Netr Preah
    327 ha reached on 4 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
4 Mar 37.7 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Mar 38.7 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Mar 38.8 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Mar 39.6 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Mar 39.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Mar 39.4 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Mar 39.1 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Mar 40.8 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Mar 40.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Mar 40.2 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Mar 39.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Mar 38.7 °C 36 % 23 km/h 1.4 mm High 26
16 Mar after 36.7 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.9 mm High 24
17 Mar after 38.3 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
18 Mar after 39.6 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Mar after 39.3 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Mar after 38.8 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Mar after 39.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
22 Mar after 40.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Mar after 40.6 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 35
24 Mar after 32.1 °C 56 % 27 km/h 59.1 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Feb 2019
After · 22 Mar 2019

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 · 197Every 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 4 March 2019 and 15 March 2019: 12 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 3,842 hectares (38.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Aek Phnum (3,155 ha, 2.9 %); Thma Koul (384 ha, 0.4 %); Preah Netr Preah (327 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.