How long did the Chey Saen fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 February 2020 to 5 March 2020 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 February 2020 to 28 February 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,909 hectares (29.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chey Saen (2,923 ha, 2.6 %); Rovieng (2 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?

Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 19 days and their median area 2,333 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.

KH · Cambodia · 5 Feb 2020 – 5 Mar 2020

Chey Saen fire, 5 February 2020 Chey Saen, Rovieng

Out · last detection 5 Mar 2020, 06:53 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2020 in Chey Saen, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,909 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Preah Vihear since 2016 (of 69 with a page). Number 37 in Cambodia in 2020, of 77.

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Suggestions: Thala Barivat · 2021 Thala Barivat · 2025 Chey Saen · 2026 Chhaeb · 2024

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Fire page data · version 2026-10-27

matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel

When copying, the sentence is

Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.

Burned area

satellite only

2,909ha

Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).

Source: GWIS (Copernicus)
Date: 5 Feb 2020 – 5 Mar 2020

+ cross-check

No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.

in my selection

Duration by satellite

satellite only

30days

5 Feb 2020 to 5 Mar 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.

Source: GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date: last detection: 5 Mar 2020, 06:53 UTC

+ cross-check

Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

in my selection

Start

satellite only

5 Feb 2020

First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.

Source: GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date: 5 Feb 2020

+ cross-check

No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.

in my selection

Hotspots

satellite only

139

VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 324 MW.

Source: NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date: 5 Feb 2020 – 5 Mar 2020

+ cross-check

There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.

in my selection

The worst day

satellite only

606MW

Total radiative power on 14 February 2020; hotspots that day: 9.

Source: NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date: 14 Feb 2020

+ cross-check

Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.

in my selection

Danger at the start

model

29.2FWI · high

Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.

Source: WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
Date: 5 Feb 2020, local noon
Model: ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com

+ cross-check

This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings

in my selection

Weather during the fire

model

36.6°C · 36% RH

High of 36.6 °C and minimum humidity of 36% on 16 February 2020; gusts of 41 km/h on 21 February 2020.

Source: weather model at the fire’s grid cell
Date: 5 Feb 2020 – 5 Mar 2020
Model: ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com

+ cross-check

These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.

in my selection

Versioned permanent link

https://worldfires.org/en/fire/chey-saen-2020-02-2?v=2026-10-27

A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.

Citation

A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives

In another language

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CSV for this fire chey-saen-2020-02-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots

fecha	focos_viirs	frp_mw	tmax_c	tmin_c	hr_min_pct	viento_max_kmh	racha_max_kmh	precip_mm	fwi	clase_fwi	dentro_del_incendio
2020-02-05	1	0	32.9	20.3	35	12.4	31.3	0	29.2	alto	1
2020-02-06	1	4	33.2	19.9	29	13.4	30.2	0	32.2	alto	1
2020-02-07	3	15	34.3	19	35	11.6	25.2	0	31.1	alto	1
2020-02-08	4	221	34	21.2	33	15	34.6	0	34.2	alto	1
2020-02-09	6	524	35.1	22.9	31	14.8	34.6	0	34.3	alto	1
2020-02-10	0	0	31.9	23.7	43	15.5	34.2	0.3	31.6	alto	1
2020-02-11	1	1	33.9	23.1	43	13.1	36	0	30	alto	1
2020-02-12	10	94	34.7	23	44	10.1	19.8	0	28.1	alto	1
2020-02-13	5	53	34.2	23.7	44	10	23.8	0	28	alto	1
2020-02-14	9	606	34.9	24.1	41	13.4	32	0	30.7	alto	1
2020-02-15	7	336	35.7	23.4	38	11.2	28.1	0	29.3	alto	1
2020-02-16	0	0	36.6	23.7	36	11.2	19.8	0	29.8	alto	1
2020-02-17	4	9	35.5	25.3	36	12.7	32.8	0	31.1	alto	1
2020-02-18	23	505	33.7	22.6	35	13.8	39.2	0	32.2	alto	1
2020-02-19	12	201	33.8	21.4	32	15.4	39.2	0	34.1	alto	1
2020-02-20	14	409	33.4	21.2	30	14.9	40.3	0	34.7	alto	1
2020-02-21	8	11	33.9	21.4	32	15.7	40.7	0	35.6	alto	1
2020-02-22	3	4	34.7	21.6	32	15.1	40.7	0	35.3	alto	1
2020-02-23	8	37	34	21.7	29	14.4	34.9	0	35.5	alto	1
2020-02-24	1	1	33.9	21.2	27	13.8	35.6	0	36.2	alto	1
2020-02-25	10	433	35.3	21	26	13	32	0	37	alto	1
2020-02-26	0	0	35.3	22.5	31	13.7	33.1	0	37.9	alto	1
2020-02-27	2	40	35.1	22.7	34	14.8	34.2	0	39	muy_alto	1
2020-02-28	2	61	35.3	23	32	15.8	33.5	0	40.2	muy_alto	1
2020-02-29	0	0	35	21.9	35	12.8	24.5	0	36.7	alto	1
2020-03-01	0	0	35.2	22.8	40	10.9	23.4	0	32.6	alto	1
2020-03-02	2	14	35.3	23.3	39	10.7	24.8	0	32.7	alto	1
2020-03-03	0	0	35	24.1	41	11	20.9	0	31.9	alto	1
2020-03-04	0	0	35.4	24.1	42	9.4	21.6	0	30.3	alto	1
2020-03-05	3	27	34.2	24.7	52	9.1	17.6	0.3	25.4	alto	1
2020-03-06	0	0	32.1	24.6	57	10.6	26.6	0.7	18.6	moderado	0
2020-03-07	0	0	34.9	23.7	48	8.6	24.8	0	21.8	alto	0
2020-03-08	0	0	37.1	24.5	39	7.3	23.8	0.1	26	alto	0
2020-03-09	0	0	37.1	24.7	39	11.2	26.6	0.1	29.5	alto	0
2020-03-10	0	0	38.3	24.9	35	11.3	24.8	0	32.1	alto	0
2020-03-11	0	0	34.8	26.1	49	12	31.3	0.3	29	alto	0
2020-03-12	0	0	37.6	25.3	37	8.4	23.8	0.4	28.6	alto	0
2020-03-13	0	0	37.9	24.9	36	9.8	26.3	0	30.4	alto	0
2020-03-14	0	0	37.3	26	43	10.5	24.5	0.2	31.1	alto	0
2020-03-15	0	0	36.2	25.9	35	11.4	32	0	32	alto	0

It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.

Live widget for your story

It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.

Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology

Burnt area: 2,909ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 30days; 5 Feb 2020 – 5 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 5 Feb; 2020
Heat detections: 139; in a single hotspot: 324 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 157MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb5 Mar

Play back 5 Mar 2020

How it evolved, day by day

5 Feb 14 Feb 22 Feb 28 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

41km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 66 ha in 2017, 31 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 1.8% of the area of London (29 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Chey Saen where it started

2,923 ha reached on 5 Feb

2.6 %
Rovieng

2 ha

0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 11 % of the area in Cambodia

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
5 Feb	32.9 °C	35 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Feb	33.2 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
7 Feb	34.3 °C	35 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
8 Feb	34.0 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Feb	35.1 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
10 Feb	31.9 °C	43 %	34 km/h	0.3 mm	High 32
11 Feb	33.9 °C	43 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Feb	34.7 °C	44 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Feb	34.2 °C	44 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
14 Feb	34.9 °C	41 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
15 Feb	35.7 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Feb	36.6 °C	36 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Feb	35.5 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
18 Feb	33.7 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
19 Feb	33.8 °C	32 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Feb	33.4 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
21 Feb	33.9 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
22 Feb	34.7 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Feb	34.0 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Feb	33.9 °C	27 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Feb	35.3 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Feb	35.3 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
27 Feb	35.1 °C	34 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
28 Feb	35.3 °C	32 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Feb	35.0 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
1 Mar	35.2 °C	40 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
2 Mar	35.3 °C	39 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Mar	35.0 °C	41 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Mar	35.4 °C	42 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
5 Mar	34.2 °C	52 %	18 km/h	0.3 mm	High 25
6 Mar after	32.1 °C	57 %	27 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 19
7 Mar after	34.9 °C	48 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Mar after	37.1 °C	39 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
9 Mar after	37.1 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
10 Mar after	38.3 °C	35 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
11 Mar after	34.8 °C	49 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	High 29
12 Mar after	37.6 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.4 mm	High 29
13 Mar after	37.9 °C	36 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
14 Mar after	37.3 °C	43 %	24 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
15 Mar after	36.2 °C	35 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 29.2, a minimum humidity of 35% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 29.2

Minimum humidity 35 %

Days without rain 60+

this fire chosen twins rest of the area

How alike they must beTwins: 23

Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Same scale

Thala Barivat fire, February 2021

2,232 ha 23 days FWI 31.5 Min. humidity 35 % 48 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

19 days
median duration: 2,333 ha
median area: 100 %
went past 1,000 ha: 2.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 8 of 23 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,909 ha against a median of 2,333 ha) and lasted 30 days, against 19 days.

In 15 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain

—no rain in ten days

41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 5 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 23, with a median of 2.5 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Jan 2020

After · 12 Mar 2020

Before After

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 · 139Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cambodia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chey Saen fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 February 2020 to 5 March 2020 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 February 2020 to 28 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,909 hectares (29.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chey Saen (2,923 ha, 2.6 %); Rovieng (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?: Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 19 days and their median area 2,333 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.

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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

27 October 2026 Last day with fire: 28 February 2020 → 5 March 2020.
27 October 2026 Start date: 12 February 2020 → 5 February 2020.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 February 2020 to 28 February 2020. 139 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.

Use this data

Burned area

Duration by satellite

Start

Hotspots

The worst day

Danger at the start

Weather during the fire

What was saved on 27 October 2026

Versioned permanent link

Citation

A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives

CSV for this fire chey-saen-2020-02-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots

Live widget for your story

Where it burned

How it evolved, day by day

The weather it burned in

This area had burned before

How big is it?

What happened to each town

People and buildings inside the perimeter

The weather day by day

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

Outlines of the closest twins

What happened to them

How it ended

How a twin is chosen

Before and after, from space

Other fires nearby

Frequently asked questions

Where to verify it

Does something look wrong on this page?

Where this data comes from