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Aek Phnum fire, February 2020 Aek Phnum, Preah Netr Preah, Kralanh

Out · last detection 26 Feb 2020, 06:03 UTC

The fire started on 12 February 2020 in Aek Phnum, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,002 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Battambang since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 20 in Cambodia in 2020, of 70.

Burnt area
4,002ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
12 Feb 2020 – 26 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
12 Feb
2020
Heat detections
221
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Feb26 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 6 Mar.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,376 ha in 2016, 213 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,421 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Aek Phnum where it started
    3,485 ha reached on 7 Feb
    3.2 %
  2. Preah Netr Preah
    520 ha reached on 12 Feb
    0.5 %
  3. Kralanh
    23 ha
    0.0 %

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)
12 Feb 35.2 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Feb 35.8 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
14 Feb 36.0 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
15 Feb 38.3 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Feb 37.9 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Feb 34.0 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
18 Feb 32.2 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Feb 34.1 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Feb 34.2 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Feb 34.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Feb 34.3 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Feb 34.0 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Feb 33.8 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Feb 35.0 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Feb 35.5 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Feb after 35.0 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Feb after 34.0 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Feb after 36.2 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Mar after 36.7 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Mar after 37.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Mar after 36.3 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
4 Mar after 36.2 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
5 Mar after 35.1 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
6 Mar after 34.3 °C 50 % 26 km/h 3.6 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Feb 2020
After · 4 Mar 2020

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 · 221Every 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 12 February 2020 and 26 February 2020: 15 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 4,002 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Aek Phnum (3,485 ha, 3.2 %); Preah Netr Preah (520 ha, 0.5 %); Kralanh (23 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.