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Sesan fire, April 2016 Sesan

Out · last detection 11 May 2016, 05:51 UTC

The fire started on 18 April 2016 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,965 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 43th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 32 in Cambodia in 2016, of 116.

Burnt area
3,965ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
18 Apr 2016 – 11 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Apr
2016
Heat detections
367
in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Apr11 May

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627282930124567891011

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
38km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 12 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Sesan where it started
    3,989 ha reached on 15 Apr
    1.5 %

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)
18 Apr 41.4 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Apr 39.3 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Apr 38.8 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Apr 38.4 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Apr 37.2 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
23 Apr 37.4 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
24 Apr 38.0 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr 38.7 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Apr 39.9 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Apr 38.5 °C 42 % 38 km/h 1.4 mm High 27
28 Apr 39.7 °C 38 % 28 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Apr 33.2 °C 64 % 23 km/h 8.2 mm Very low 3
30 Apr 34.8 °C 55 % 24 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 4
1 May 37.8 °C 46 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
2 May 38.1 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
3 May 37.8 °C 46 % 22 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 4
4 May 36.2 °C 52 % 23 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 5
5 May 37.6 °C 48 % 21 km/h 9.7 mm Very low 2
6 May 37.0 °C 52 % 21 km/h 0.9 mm Low 7
7 May 37.0 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
8 May 36.9 °C 51 % 23 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 5
9 May 36.7 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.9 mm Low 10
10 May 37.7 °C 48 % 26 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 12
11 May 37.6 °C 48 % 19 km/h 6.8 mm Very low 2
12 May after 35.7 °C 58 % 30 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Apr 2016
After · 18 May 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 · 367Every 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 18 April 2016 and 11 May 2016: 24 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 3,965 hectares (39.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sesan (3,989 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.