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KH · Cambodia · –

Ou Ya Dav fire, March 2021 Ou Ya Dav

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2021, 19:01 UTC

The fire started on 3 March 2021 in Ou Ya Dav, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,464 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 33th largest in Ratanakiri since 2016 (of 62 with a page). Number 33 in Cambodia in 2021, of 69.

Burnt area
2,464ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
3 Mar 2021 – 20 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Mar
2021
Heat detections
182
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
106MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Mar20 Mar
20 Mar 2021

How it evolved, day by day

3 Mar 2021 · 138 MW · 30 4 Mar 2021 · 509 MW · 38 5 Mar 2021 · 61 MW · 8 6 Mar 2021 · 8 MW · 1 7 Mar 2021 · 28 MW · 8 8 Mar 2021 · 530 MW · 26 9 Mar 2021 · 260 MW · 23 10 Mar 2021 · 6 MW · 1 11 Mar 2021 · 4 MW · 4 12 Mar 2021 · 25 MW · 6 13 Mar 2021 · 57 MW · 9 14 Mar 2021 · 42 MW · 9 16 Mar 2021 · 46 MW · 5 17 Mar 2021 · 49 MW · 6 18 Mar 2021 · 8 MW · 2 19 Mar 2021 · 19 MW · 2 20 Mar 2021 · 3 MW · 4
3 Mar 8 Mar 11 Mar 16 Mar 20 Mar

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
47km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 71 ha in 2016, 2,127 ha in 2019, 1,802 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,324 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.6% of the area of London (25 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. Ou Ya Dav where it started
    2,479 ha reached on 3 Mar
    1.5 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Mar 34.3 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Mar 35.5 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Mar 36.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Mar 37.2 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Mar 36.1 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Mar 34.0 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
9 Mar 34.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Mar 34.6 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Mar 35.5 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Mar 34.9 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Mar 36.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Mar 35.2 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Mar 35.3 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Mar 35.2 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Mar 35.8 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Mar 37.4 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Mar 37.2 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Mar 37.1 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
21 Mar after 35.6 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
22 Mar after 33.4 °C 37 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Mar after 33.3 °C 36 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Mar after 34.4 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Mar after 35.9 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Mar after 37.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Mar after 37.6 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar after 37.9 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Mar after 37.3 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Mar after 37.0 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 34.0, a minimum humidity of 37% and 20 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 36.

FWI at the start 34.0
Minimum humidity 37 %
Days without rain 20
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Sesan fire, April 2016
3,965 ha 32 days FWI 35.2 Min. humidity 37 % 113 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 17 May.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
2,774 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 11 of 36 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,464 ha against a median of 2,774 ha) and lasted 18 days, against 16 days.

In 25 of 36, 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 1.5 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
47km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 11 of 36, with a median of 1.5 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 · 24 Feb 2021
After · 27 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 · 182Every 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 Ou Ya Dav fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 March 2021 to 20 March 2021 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 March 2021 to 13 March 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,464 hectares (24.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ou Ya Dav (2,479 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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: 36. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 2,774 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 25 of 36, 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 1.5 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 13 March 2021 → 20 March 2021.

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.

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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 3 March 2021 to 13 March 2021. 182 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.