How long did the Kaoh Nheaek fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 December 2025 to 11 February 2026 (46 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 December 2025 to 4 February 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,895 hectares (89.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kaoh Nheaek (8,945 ha, 1.7 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

KH · Cambodia · 2025-12-28 → 2026-02-11

Kaoh Nheaek fire, December 2025 Kaoh Nheaek

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2026, 18:24 UTC

The fire started on 28 December 2025 in Kaoh Nheaek, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 46 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,895 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

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.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 8th largest in Mondulkiri since 2016 (of 112 with a page). Number 3 in Cambodia in 2025, of 31.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kaoh Nheaek · 2021 Kaoh Nheaek · 2017 Kaoh Nheaek · 2025 Pech Chreada · 2016

Burnt area: 8,895ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 46days; 28 Dec 2025 – 11 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 28 Dec; 2025
Heat detections: 366; in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 52MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Dec11 Feb

Play back 11 Feb 2026

How it evolved, day by day

29 Dec 7 Jan 13 Jan 19 Jan 25 Jan 31 Jan 8 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

35°high

61km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 941 ha in 2016, 2,155 ha in 2017, 984 ha in 2018, 2,237 ha in 2020, 2,069 ha in 2021, 1,628 ha in 2022, 1,018 ha in 2023, 808 ha in 2024, 200 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,114 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 5.6% of the area of London (89 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

Kaoh Nheaek where it started

8,945 ha reached on 29 Dec

1.7 %

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 2025

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
28 Dec	31.5 °C	39 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
29 Dec	32.1 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
30 Dec	31.2 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
31 Dec	31.7 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
1 Jan	31.5 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
2 Jan	30.3 °C	38 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Jan	29.5 °C	39 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
4 Jan	31.8 °C	38 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
5 Jan	30.7 °C	47 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Jan	30.9 °C	40 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
7 Jan	29.7 °C	40 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
8 Jan	28.8 °C	35 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
9 Jan	28.9 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
10 Jan	30.2 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
11 Jan	30.8 °C	36 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
12 Jan	32.2 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
13 Jan	32.0 °C	38 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
14 Jan	33.2 °C	33 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Jan	33.4 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Jan	33.9 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
17 Jan	33.4 °C	34 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
18 Jan	33.0 °C	33 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
19 Jan	33.1 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 Jan	33.0 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
21 Jan	31.6 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
22 Jan	30.7 °C	36 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Jan	30.4 °C	36 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Jan	32.2 °C	33 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
25 Jan	32.5 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
26 Jan	32.4 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Jan	32.5 °C	33 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Jan	31.0 °C	38 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Jan	33.2 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
30 Jan	33.2 °C	33 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
31 Jan	32.7 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
1 Feb	32.7 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
2 Feb	31.8 °C	38 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
3 Feb	30.6 °C	47 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Feb	34.4 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
5 Feb	34.2 °C	36 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Feb	34.6 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
7 Feb	33.0 °C	43 %	34 km/h	0.4 mm	High 33
8 Feb	34.3 °C	30 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
9 Feb	34.2 °C	32 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Feb	35.1 °C	33 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
11 Feb	30.3 °C	56 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
12 Feb after	34.6 °C	34 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
13 Feb after	35.5 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Feb after	36.0 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Feb after	35.4 °C	36 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
16 Feb after	36.9 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
17 Feb after	35.6 °C	34 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
18 Feb after	35.1 °C	35 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
19 Feb after	34.6 °C	33 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Feb after	35.5 °C	28 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Feb after	36.2 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Dec 2025

After · 18 Feb 2026

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 6 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak39 µg/m³

Days over the guideline7 days

PM1041 µg/m³

Optical depth1.26

WHO 15

262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 366Every 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 Kaoh Nheaek fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 December 2025 to 11 February 2026 (46 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 December 2025 to 4 February 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,895 hectares (89.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kaoh Nheaek (8,945 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

27 October 2026 Last day with fire: 4 February 2026 → 11 February 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.

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)

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 December 2025 to 4 February 2026. 366 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 2025, 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.

Where it burned