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Kralanh fire, April 2016 Kralanh, Aek Phnum, Preah Netr Preah

Out · last detection 14 Apr 2016, 05:58 UTC

The fire started on 5 April 2016 in Kralanh, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,949 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Siem Reap since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 56 in Cambodia in 2016, of 116.

Burnt area
2,949ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
5 Apr 2016 – 14 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
5 Apr
2016
Heat detections
119
in a single hotspot: 189 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Apr14 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
35km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 19 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Kralanh where it started
    2,543 ha reached on 5 Apr
    4.4 %
  2. Aek Phnum
    400 ha reached on 5 Apr
    0.4 %
  3. Preah Netr Preah
    22 ha reached on 16 Apr
    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)
5 Apr 40.0 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Apr 42.1 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Apr 41.6 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Apr 41.0 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Apr 40.6 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Apr 42.5 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
11 Apr 43.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Apr 42.6 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Apr 42.8 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Apr 42.1 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Apr after 43.0 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Apr after 42.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Apr after 41.9 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Apr after 42.4 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Apr after 39.5 °C 38 % 36 km/h 1.3 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Mar 2016
After · 21 Apr 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 · 119Every 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 Kralanh fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 April 2016 and 14 April 2016: 10 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 2,949 hectares (29.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kralanh (2,543 ha, 4.4 %); Aek Phnum (400 ha, 0.4 %); Preah Netr Preah (22 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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

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.