Skip to content
worldfires
KH · Cambodia · →

Sesan fire, December 2019 Sesan

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2020, 18:17 UTC

The fire started on 20 December 2019 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,216 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 2 in Cambodia in 2019, of 65.

Burnt area
13,216ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
20 Dec 2019 – 25 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Dec
2019
Heat detections
1,281
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
5.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Dec25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
43km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,354 ha in 2016, 2,236 ha in 2017, 611 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,521 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Sesan where it started
    13,297 ha reached on 13 Dec
    4.9 %

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)
20 Dec 33.1 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Dec 33.0 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Dec 33.2 °C 50 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Dec 32.8 °C 47 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Dec 33.3 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Dec 33.0 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Dec 31.9 °C 51 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Dec 32.0 °C 49 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Dec 31.7 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Dec 31.4 °C 48 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Dec 33.1 °C 49 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
31 Dec 32.4 °C 50 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Jan 33.2 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
2 Jan 33.0 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Jan 32.7 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Jan 31.9 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
5 Jan 32.6 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Jan 33.2 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Jan 33.5 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Jan 34.3 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Jan 34.5 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Jan 33.8 °C 49 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Jan 33.0 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Jan 31.9 °C 55 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 Jan 33.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Jan 32.7 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Jan 32.9 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Jan 33.5 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Jan 33.1 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Jan 33.5 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Jan 32.5 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jan 33.3 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Jan 33.9 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Jan 34.6 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jan 35.0 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Jan 34.1 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Jan 32.9 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Jan after 33.3 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
27 Jan after 33.3 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
28 Jan after 33.2 °C 47 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Jan after 30.2 °C 57 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
30 Jan after 30.0 °C 52 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
31 Jan after 30.9 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Feb after 32.2 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Feb after 32.6 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Feb after 34.1 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Feb after 33.1 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Dec 2019
After · 1 Feb 2020

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 · 1,281Every 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 20 December 2019 and 25 January 2020: 37 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 13,216 hectares (132.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sesan (13,297 ha, 4.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.