Skip to content
worldfires
KH · Cambodia · →

Chhaeb fire, March 2021 Chhaeb, Thala Barivat

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2021, 06:02 UTC

The fire started on 1 March 2021 in Chhaeb, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,516 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Preah Vihear since 2016 (of 82 with a page). Number 14 in Cambodia in 2021, of 67.

Burnt area
4,516ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
1 Mar 2021 – 15 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Mar
2021
Heat detections
230
in a single hotspot: 114 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111213141516

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
37km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 851 ha in 2019, 1,744 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,104 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chhaeb where it started
    3,482 ha reached on 22 Feb
    1.4 %
  2. Thala Barivat
    1,060 ha reached on 23 Feb
    0.4 %

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)
1 Mar 35.0 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
2 Mar 36.2 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 21
3 Mar 36.8 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Mar 36.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Mar 36.9 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Mar 36.7 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Mar 36.4 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Mar 33.4 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Mar 36.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Mar 35.9 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Mar 36.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Mar 36.1 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Mar 35.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Mar 35.3 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Mar 35.6 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Mar after 34.3 °C 43 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Mar after 33.7 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
18 Mar after 35.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Mar after 35.2 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Mar after 37.0 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Mar after 34.6 °C 51 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
22 Mar after 35.3 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Mar after 36.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Mar after 36.8 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Mar after 36.8 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Feb 2021
After · 22 Mar 2021

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 · 230Every 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 Chhaeb fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2021 and 15 March 2021: 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 4,516 hectares (45.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chhaeb (3,482 ha, 1.4 %); Thala Barivat (1,060 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

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

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.