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Sesan fire, 29 January 2017 Sesan

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2017, 18:36 UTC

The fire started on 29 January 2017 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 52 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,221 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 3th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). The largest in Cambodia in 2017, of 60.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sesan · 2016Sesan · 2016Sesan · 2016Sesan · 2016

Burnt area
17,221ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
52days
29 Jan 2017 – 21 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Jan
2017
Heat detections
2,725
in a single hotspot: 136 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
311MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jan21 Mar
21 Mar 2017

How it evolved, day by day

29 Jan 2017 · 18 MW · 4 31 Jan 2017 · 291 MW · 15 1 Feb 2017 · 26 MW · 8 3 Feb 2017 · 19 MW · 8 4 Feb 2017 · 16 MW · 2 5 Feb 2017 · 429 MW · 60 6 Feb 2017 · 352 MW · 47 7 Feb 2017 · 235 MW · 47 8 Feb 2017 · 81 MW · 26 9 Feb 2017 · 326 MW · 46 10 Feb 2017 · 446 MW · 75 11 Feb 2017 · 589 MW · 114 12 Feb 2017 · 445 MW · 95 13 Feb 2017 · 400 MW · 76 14 Feb 2017 · 520 MW · 102 15 Feb 2017 · 941 MW · 168 16 Feb 2017 · 999 MW · 122 17 Feb 2017 · 356 MW · 95 18 Feb 2017 · 420 MW · 83 19 Feb 2017 · 508 MW · 82 20 Feb 2017 · 71 MW · 16 21 Feb 2017 · 69 MW · 10 22 Feb 2017 · 87 MW · 24 23 Feb 2017 · 19 MW · 2 24 Feb 2017 · 97 MW · 15 25 Feb 2017 · 231 MW · 59 26 Feb 2017 · 845 MW · 119 27 Feb 2017 · 1,117 MW · 205 28 Feb 2017 · 686 MW · 128 1 Mar 2017 · 275 MW · 71 2 Mar 2017 · 527 MW · 117 3 Mar 2017 · 557 MW · 112 4 Mar 2017 · 358 MW · 65 5 Mar 2017 · 310 MW · 64 6 Mar 2017 · 271 MW · 63 7 Mar 2017 · 518 MW · 78 8 Mar 2017 · 176 MW · 58 9 Mar 2017 · 270 MW · 32 10 Mar 2017 · 362 MW · 68 11 Mar 2017 · 197 MW · 43 12 Mar 2017 · 68 MW · 23 13 Mar 2017 · 142 MW · 31 14 Mar 2017 · 62 MW · 10 15 Mar 2017 · 3 MW · 2 16 Mar 2017 · 43 MW · 5 19 Mar 2017 · 99 MW · 10 20 Mar 2017 · 47 MW · 7 21 Mar 2017 · 24 MW · 13
29 Jan 7 Feb 14 Feb 21 Feb 27 Feb 28 Feb 7 Mar 14 Mar

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
46km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 22 Mar.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,374 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,471 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (172 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
    17,323 ha reached on 29 Jan
    6.4 %

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)
29 Jan 33.3 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Jan 33.6 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jan 32.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Feb 34.7 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Feb 32.0 °C 46 % 32 km/h 2.6 mm Low 8
3 Feb 34.7 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
4 Feb 35.4 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Feb 34.9 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Feb 34.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Feb 35.5 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Feb 35.6 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Feb 36.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Feb 35.2 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Feb 35.3 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Feb 33.4 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Feb 33.0 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Feb 34.3 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Feb 33.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Feb 33.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Feb 34.5 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Feb 35.0 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Feb 35.2 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Feb 35.9 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Feb 36.7 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
22 Feb 36.4 °C 40 % 22 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 15
23 Feb 36.1 °C 39 % 21 km/h 11.3 mm Very low 4
24 Feb 37.8 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Feb 35.5 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Feb 35.8 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Feb 35.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Feb 36.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Mar 35.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Mar 35.6 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Mar 35.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Mar 36.3 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Mar 36.0 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Mar 36.0 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Mar 36.8 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Mar 37.1 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Mar 36.1 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Mar 37.0 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Mar 37.8 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Mar 35.6 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
13 Mar 37.0 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar 38.2 °C 37 % 28 km/h 8.9 mm Low 8
15 Mar 36.6 °C 44 % 26 km/h 7.9 mm Very low 5
16 Mar 37.5 °C 37 % 22 km/h 18.9 mm Very low 2
17 Mar 35.1 °C 50 % 24 km/h 8.1 mm Very low 1
18 Mar 34.8 °C 53 % 25 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 2
19 Mar 33.6 °C 56 % 21 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 3
20 Mar 33.9 °C 53 % 18 km/h 14.0 mm Very low 0
21 Mar 29.7 °C 75 % 23 km/h 19.4 mm Very low 0
22 Mar after 33.0 °C 60 % 22 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jan 2017
After · 28 Mar 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 · 2,725Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 January 2017 to 21 March 2017 (52 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 February 2017 to 14 March 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,221 hectares (172.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sesan (17,323 ha, 6.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 February 2017 to 14 March 2017. 2,725 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.