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Chhloung fire, January 2016 Chhloung, Snuol

Out · last detection 2 Mar 2016, 06:04 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2016 in Chhloung, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 46 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,081 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 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 4th largest in Kratie since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 5 in Cambodia in 2016, of 118.

Compare with…
Burnt area
20,081ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
46days
16 Jan 2016 – 1 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Jan
2016
Heat detections
1,285
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
183MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan1 Mar
2 Mar 2016

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jan 2016 · 7 MW · 3 17 Jan 2016 · 68 MW · 12 18 Jan 2016 · 59 MW · 12 19 Jan 2016 · 12 MW · 3 20 Jan 2016 · 32 MW · 4 21 Jan 2016 · 4 MW · 3 22 Jan 2016 · 107 MW · 12 23 Jan 2016 · 130 MW · 19 24 Jan 2016 · 705 MW · 81 25 Jan 2016 · 763 MW · 89 26 Jan 2016 · 139 MW · 30 27 Jan 2016 · 16 MW · 6 28 Jan 2016 · 421 MW · 25 29 Jan 2016 · 27 MW · 10 30 Jan 2016 · 67 MW · 7 31 Jan 2016 · 29 MW · 3 1 Feb 2016 · 263 MW · 16 2 Feb 2016 · 93 MW · 21 3 Feb 2016 · 416 MW · 49 4 Feb 2016 · 108 MW · 28 5 Feb 2016 · 23 MW · 23 6 Feb 2016 · 512 MW · 110 7 Feb 2016 · 340 MW · 71 8 Feb 2016 · 148 MW · 22 9 Feb 2016 · 90 MW · 19 10 Feb 2016 · 10 MW · 7 11 Feb 2016 · 29 MW · 10 13 Feb 2016 · 1 MW · 1 14 Feb 2016 · 76 MW · 9 15 Feb 2016 · 71 MW · 12 16 Feb 2016 · 212 MW · 36 17 Feb 2016 · 338 MW · 47 18 Feb 2016 · 352 MW · 51 19 Feb 2016 · 96 MW · 18 20 Feb 2016 · 172 MW · 24 21 Feb 2016 · 97 MW · 16 22 Feb 2016 · 21 MW · 5 23 Feb 2016 · 15 MW · 5 24 Feb 2016 · 536 MW · 58 25 Feb 2016 · 286 MW · 28 26 Feb 2016 · 314 MW · 48 27 Feb 2016 · 145 MW · 33 28 Feb 2016 · 344 MW · 36 29 Feb 2016 · 63 MW · 17 1 Mar 2016 · 606 MW · 37 2 Mar 2016 · 80 MW · 12
16 Jan 23 Jan 25 Jan 30 Jan 6 Feb 14 Feb 21 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

38°high
63km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (201 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

  1. Chhloung where it started
    19,528 ha
    22 %
  2. Snuol
    672 ha
    0.2 %

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 2015
Built-up area3.7 ha
Residents≈ 1,500

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.7 hectares of built-up land and about 1,500 residents (GHSL 2015, 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Jan 33.0 °C 51 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
17 Jan 34.6 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Jan 34.7 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
19 Jan 35.1 °C 46 % 20 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 14
20 Jan 35.4 °C 44 % 26 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Jan 34.8 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
22 Jan 35.3 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Jan 37.9 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jan 33.9 °C 40 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jan 30.4 °C 37 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jan 32.7 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jan 33.7 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Jan 35.1 °C 45 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
29 Jan 35.6 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 Jan 36.1 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
31 Jan 35.8 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Feb 37.0 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
2 Feb 35.7 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Feb 35.0 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Feb 35.2 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb 35.0 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Feb 32.5 °C 35 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Feb 29.4 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Feb 30.9 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Feb 33.1 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Feb 34.5 °C 34 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Feb 34.3 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Feb 35.0 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Feb 34.9 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Feb 35.6 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Feb 36.2 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Feb 35.4 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Feb 35.1 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Feb 34.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Feb 35.3 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Feb 35.5 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Feb 35.4 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Feb 35.2 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Feb 36.2 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Feb 36.3 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Feb 32.9 °C 38 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Feb 34.8 °C 38 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Feb 35.3 °C 37 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Feb 35.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Feb 34.4 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Mar 34.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Mar after 35.5 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Mar after 35.6 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Mar after 34.9 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Mar after 35.8 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Mar after 35.1 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Mar after 35.8 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Mar after 36.4 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Mar after 36.6 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Mar after 36.4 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Mar after 36.4 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jan 2016
After · 8 Mar 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 · 1,285Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chhloung fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2016 and 1 March 2016: 46 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 20,081 hectares (200.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chhloung (19,528 ha, 22 %); Snuol (672 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

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

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,285 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 2015, 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.