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Kaoh Nheaek fire, 6 March 2018 Sambour, Kaoh Nheaek, Sesan

Out · last detection 13 Apr 2018, 19:01 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2018 in Kaoh Nheaek, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,343 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Mondulkiri since 2016 (of 112 with a page). The largest in Cambodia in 2018, of 22.

Burnt area
11,343ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
6 Mar 2018 – 12 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
6 Mar
2018
Heat detections
963
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
152MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

13 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

6 Mar 2018 · 40 MW · 11 7 Mar 2018 · 545 MW · 57 8 Mar 2018 · 237 MW · 58 9 Mar 2018 · 798 MW · 97 10 Mar 2018 · 246 MW · 60 11 Mar 2018 · 901 MW · 117 12 Mar 2018 · 141 MW · 16 13 Mar 2018 · 68 MW · 21 14 Mar 2018 · 75 MW · 8 16 Mar 2018 · 3 MW · 1 17 Mar 2018 · 20 MW · 4 18 Mar 2018 · 46 MW · 15 19 Mar 2018 · 19 MW · 10 20 Mar 2018 · 19 MW · 1 21 Mar 2018 · 14 MW · 3 22 Mar 2018 · 62 MW · 14 23 Mar 2018 · 681 MW · 82 24 Mar 2018 · 218 MW · 35 25 Mar 2018 · 53 MW · 13 26 Mar 2018 · 50 MW · 14 27 Mar 2018 · 108 MW · 22 28 Mar 2018 · 60 MW · 7 30 Mar 2018 · 11 MW · 2 31 Mar 2018 · 76 MW · 18 1 Apr 2018 · 11 MW · 10 2 Apr 2018 · 80 MW · 20 3 Apr 2018 · 17 MW · 7 4 Apr 2018 · 4 MW · 4 5 Apr 2018 · 19 MW · 8 6 Apr 2018 · 0 MW · 1 7 Apr 2018 · 210 MW · 23 8 Apr 2018 · 140 MW · 21 9 Apr 2018 · 360 MW · 45 10 Apr 2018 · 53 MW · 12 12 Apr 2018 · 13 MW · 4 13 Apr 2018 · 67 MW · 5
6 Mar 11 Mar 12 Mar 19 Mar 25 Mar 1 Apr 7 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
52km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 19 Apr.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15,169 ha in 2016, 4,610 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,379 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Sambour
    6,064 ha
    1.1 %
  2. Kaoh Nheaek where it started
    5,333 ha
    1.0 %
  3. Sesan
    27 ha
    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)
6 Mar 35.1 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
7 Mar 38.0 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Mar 38.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Mar 34.5 °C 37 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Mar 34.5 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Mar 35.1 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Mar 36.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 36.8 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Mar 33.6 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
15 Mar 32.2 °C 55 % 34 km/h 4.4 mm Low 5
16 Mar 34.0 °C 48 % 27 km/h 1.3 mm Low 11
17 Mar 35.2 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
18 Mar 35.4 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 21
19 Mar 35.0 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 21
20 Mar 35.6 °C 42 % 22 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 14
21 Mar 27.4 °C 74 % 23 km/h 13.8 mm Very low 0
22 Mar 33.8 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
23 Mar 34.1 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Mar 34.9 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Mar 36.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Mar 35.2 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Mar 34.3 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Mar 34.8 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Mar 28.4 °C 70 % 20 km/h 11.8 mm Very low 0
30 Mar 33.1 °C 56 % 21 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 3
31 Mar 34.3 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
1 Apr 35.1 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Apr 36.3 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Apr 35.4 °C 36 % 25 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 16
4 Apr 33.0 °C 54 % 24 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 12
5 Apr 34.3 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
6 Apr 36.0 °C 48 % 24 km/h 2.6 mm Low 6
7 Apr 34.0 °C 34 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Apr 33.3 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Apr 36.9 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Apr 38.1 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Apr 38.8 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
12 Apr 37.6 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
13 Apr after 39.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
14 Apr after 40.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Apr after 37.7 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.9 mm High 23
16 Apr after 39.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Apr after 38.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Apr after 36.9 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
19 Apr after 37.1 °C 39 % 30 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2018
After · 19 Apr 2018

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 · 963Every 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 Kaoh Nheaek fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 March 2018 and 12 April 2018: 38 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 11,343 hectares (113.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sambour (6,064 ha, 1.1 %); Kaoh Nheaek (5,333 ha, 1.0 %); Sesan (27 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 52 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.

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.