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Sesan fire, 8 January 2016 Sesan

Out · last detection 10 Apr 2016, 18:06 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2016 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 93 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,697 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 8th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 9 in Cambodia in 2016, of 118.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sesan · 2017Sesan · 2022Sesan · 2025Sesan · 2021

Burnt area
10,697ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
93days
8 Jan 2016 – 9 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 Jan
2016
Heat detections
1,487
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
92MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan9 Apr
10 Apr 2016

How it evolved, day by day

8 Jan 2016 · 130 MW · 11 9 Jan 2016 · 98 MW · 18 10 Jan 2016 · 41 MW · 12 11 Jan 2016 · 59 MW · 29 12 Jan 2016 · 49 MW · 10 13 Jan 2016 · 50 MW · 10 14 Jan 2016 · 35 MW · 11 15 Jan 2016 · 3 MW · 2 16 Jan 2016 · 34 MW · 8 19 Jan 2016 · 18 MW · 2 20 Jan 2016 · 118 MW · 29 21 Jan 2016 · 56 MW · 13 23 Jan 2016 · 124 MW · 20 24 Jan 2016 · 482 MW · 111 25 Jan 2016 · 531 MW · 101 26 Jan 2016 · 173 MW · 27 27 Jan 2016 · 9 MW · 5 28 Jan 2016 · 65 MW · 11 29 Jan 2016 · 73 MW · 8 30 Jan 2016 · 117 MW · 34 31 Jan 2016 · 68 MW · 15 1 Feb 2016 · 26 MW · 14 3 Feb 2016 · 48 MW · 18 4 Feb 2016 · 79 MW · 24 5 Feb 2016 · 70 MW · 16 6 Feb 2016 · 32 MW · 18 7 Feb 2016 · 8 MW · 4 8 Feb 2016 · 64 MW · 11 9 Feb 2016 · 47 MW · 19 10 Feb 2016 · 12 MW · 7 11 Feb 2016 · 83 MW · 15 13 Feb 2016 · 264 MW · 30 14 Feb 2016 · 94 MW · 11 15 Feb 2016 · 162 MW · 26 16 Feb 2016 · 313 MW · 39 17 Feb 2016 · 311 MW · 41 18 Feb 2016 · 44 MW · 14 19 Feb 2016 · 47 MW · 13 20 Feb 2016 · 61 MW · 17 21 Feb 2016 · 47 MW · 13 22 Feb 2016 · 42 MW · 13 23 Feb 2016 · 12 MW · 4 24 Feb 2016 · 95 MW · 21 25 Feb 2016 · 315 MW · 32 26 Feb 2016 · 86 MW · 23 27 Feb 2016 · 98 MW · 15 28 Feb 2016 · 23 MW · 9 1 Mar 2016 · 89 MW · 10 2 Mar 2016 · 221 MW · 27 3 Mar 2016 · 94 MW · 19 4 Mar 2016 · 21 MW · 6 5 Mar 2016 · 152 MW · 24 6 Mar 2016 · 48 MW · 9 7 Mar 2016 · 131 MW · 26 8 Mar 2016 · 43 MW · 14 9 Mar 2016 · 14 MW · 6 10 Mar 2016 · 18 MW · 5 11 Mar 2016 · 64 MW · 8 12 Mar 2016 · 13 MW · 4 13 Mar 2016 · 12 MW · 8 14 Mar 2016 · 12 MW · 4 15 Mar 2016 · 121 MW · 13 16 Mar 2016 · 104 MW · 14 17 Mar 2016 · 85 MW · 15 18 Mar 2016 · 118 MW · 16 19 Mar 2016 · 72 MW · 15 20 Mar 2016 · 310 MW · 22 21 Mar 2016 · 230 MW · 34 22 Mar 2016 · 411 MW · 27 23 Mar 2016 · 98 MW · 14 24 Mar 2016 · 4 MW · 2 25 Mar 2016 · 21 MW · 12 26 Mar 2016 · 25 MW · 12 27 Mar 2016 · 50 MW · 17 28 Mar 2016 · 43 MW · 15 29 Mar 2016 · 145 MW · 18 30 Mar 2016 · 37 MW · 9 31 Mar 2016 · 70 MW · 12 1 Apr 2016 · 1 MW · 1 2 Apr 2016 · 9 MW · 5 3 Apr 2016 · 18 MW · 3 4 Apr 2016 · 4 MW · 3 5 Apr 2016 · 8 MW · 3 6 Apr 2016 · 41 MW · 8 7 Apr 2016 · 230 MW · 21 8 Apr 2016 · 65 MW · 10 9 Apr 2016 · 71 MW · 15 10 Apr 2016 · 3 MW · 1
8 Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 7 Feb 21 Feb 6 Mar 19 Mar 1 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
44km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.8% of the area of London (107 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. Sesan where it started
    10,763 ha
    4.0 %

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.

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)
8 Jan 33.4 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Jan 33.5 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Jan 31.3 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 19
11 Jan 32.3 °C 54 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
12 Jan 34.2 °C 48 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
13 Jan 35.7 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
14 Jan 35.8 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Jan 34.9 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Jan 29.4 °C 72 % 23 km/h 9.1 mm Very low 0
17 Jan 33.7 °C 54 % 24 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 3
18 Jan 34.1 °C 53 % 17 km/h 0.7 mm Low 8
19 Jan 34.7 °C 51 % 26 km/h 1.8 mm Low 8
20 Jan 35.6 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
21 Jan 36.2 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Jan 34.5 °C 50 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Jan 37.1 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Jan 32.5 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Jan 30.3 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Jan 32.3 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Jan 33.1 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Jan 35.2 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
29 Jan 35.2 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Jan 35.6 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jan 35.5 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Feb 36.1 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Feb 35.0 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Feb 33.9 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Feb 34.4 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Feb 34.8 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Feb 31.7 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Feb 28.3 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Feb 29.9 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Feb 32.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Feb 34.2 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Feb 35.1 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Feb 35.1 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Feb 34.6 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Feb 36.1 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Feb 37.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Feb 35.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Feb 34.6 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Feb 34.4 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Feb 35.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Feb 33.8 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Feb 35.0 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Feb 36.1 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Feb 37.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Feb 35.9 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Feb 33.9 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Feb 34.1 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Feb 34.8 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Feb 35.1 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Feb 33.8 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Mar 34.4 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Mar 34.9 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Mar 35.5 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Mar 36.4 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Mar 36.7 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Mar 37.1 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Mar 35.9 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Mar 37.8 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Mar 37.2 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Mar 37.6 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Mar 35.9 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Mar 36.6 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Mar 35.4 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Mar 38.9 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Mar 35.9 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Mar 37.7 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Mar 38.1 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Mar 37.3 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar 37.6 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar 38.4 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Mar 38.1 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar 37.9 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Mar 37.1 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar 38.1 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Mar 33.7 °C 48 % 35 km/h 1.0 mm High 22
26 Mar 35.6 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Mar 34.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Mar 35.1 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Mar 36.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Mar 37.2 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Mar 36.9 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Apr 37.0 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Apr 37.4 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr 36.3 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Apr 36.7 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
5 Apr 36.1 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
6 Apr 38.5 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Apr 38.2 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Apr 38.0 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Apr 37.6 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Apr after 37.8 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
11 Apr after 38.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr after 38.0 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Apr after 38.1 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Apr after 39.1 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr after 39.3 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr after 38.9 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Apr after 39.1 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
18 Apr after 41.3 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Apr after 39.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2016
After · 16 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 · 1,487Every 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 Sesan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2016 and 9 April 2016: 93 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 10,697 hectares (107.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sesan (10,763 ha, 4.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

Report an error
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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,487 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.

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.