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Pech Chreada fire, February 2017 Kaev Seima, Pech Chreada

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2017, 17:53 UTC

The fire started on 4 February 2017 in Pech Chreada, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,034 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Mondulkiri since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 27 in Cambodia in 2017, of 57.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,034ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
4 Feb 2017 – 13 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
4 Feb
2017
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
509MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
64km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 21 Feb.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,763 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,631 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kaev Seima
    1,798 ha reached on 5 Feb
    0.6 %
  2. Pech Chreada where it started
    1,256 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.3 %

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)
4 Feb 35.2 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Feb 35.4 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
6 Feb 35.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Feb 35.7 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Feb 35.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Feb 36.5 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Feb 35.3 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Feb 33.9 °C 31 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Feb 32.8 °C 30 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Feb 32.6 °C 32 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Feb after 34.2 °C 30 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Feb after 33.5 °C 31 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Feb after 33.9 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Feb after 35.0 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Feb after 35.3 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Feb after 35.1 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Feb after 35.5 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Feb after 36.8 °C 37 % 20 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jan 2017
After · 20 Feb 2017

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 · 157Every 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 Pech Chreada fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 February 2017 and 13 February 2017: 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 3,034 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kaev Seima (1,798 ha, 0.6 %); Pech Chreada (1,256 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.