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Prek Prasab fire, 21 January 2016 Prek Prasab, Sambour

Out · last detection 28 Jan 2016, 17:35 UTC

The fire started on 21 January 2016 in Prek Prasab, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,824 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Kratie since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 13 in Cambodia in 2016, of 116.

Burnt area
6,824ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
21 Jan 2016 – 27 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Jan
2016
Heat detections
387
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425262728

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
53km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Prek Prasab where it started
    4,876 ha reached on 14 Jan
    3.5 %
  2. Sambour
    1,989 ha reached on 14 Jan
    0.4 %

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)
21 Jan 35.0 °C 48 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Jan 35.2 °C 41 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Jan 38.0 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Jan 34.2 °C 37 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jan 30.6 °C 36 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jan 32.8 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jan 33.8 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jan after 35.1 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Jan after 36.0 °C 40 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Jan after 36.2 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
31 Jan after 35.8 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Feb after 37.1 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Feb after 35.8 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Feb after 34.8 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Feb after 35.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Feb after 35.5 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Feb after 32.5 °C 34 % 52 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 · 14 Jan 2016
After · 3 Feb 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 · 387Every 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 Prek Prasab fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2016 and 27 January 2016: 7 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 6,824 hectares (68.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Prek Prasab (4,876 ha, 3.5 %); Sambour (1,989 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.