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Snuol fire, 21 January 2016 Kaev Seima, Snuol

Out · last detection 3 Apr 2016, 18:37 UTC

The fire started on 21 January 2016 in Snuol, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 73 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,542 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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 largest fire in Kratie since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 2 in Cambodia in 2016, of 118.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kaev Seima · 2017Kaev Seima · 2026Kaev Seima · 2017Kaev Seima · 2026

Burnt area
36,542ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
73days
21 Jan 2016 – 2 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Jan
2016
Heat detections
4,653
in a single hotspot: 284 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
406MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jan2 Apr
3 Apr 2016

How it evolved, day by day

21 Jan 2016 · 1 MW · 2 22 Jan 2016 · 41 MW · 10 23 Jan 2016 · 873 MW · 97 24 Jan 2016 · 1,623 MW · 219 25 Jan 2016 · 714 MW · 186 26 Jan 2016 · 136 MW · 19 27 Jan 2016 · 2 MW · 2 28 Jan 2016 · 50 MW · 9 29 Jan 2016 · 26 MW · 6 30 Jan 2016 · 114 MW · 33 31 Jan 2016 · 98 MW · 30 1 Feb 2016 · 96 MW · 34 2 Feb 2016 · 75 MW · 32 3 Feb 2016 · 611 MW · 92 4 Feb 2016 · 197 MW · 48 5 Feb 2016 · 172 MW · 44 6 Feb 2016 · 675 MW · 175 7 Feb 2016 · 961 MW · 207 8 Feb 2016 · 559 MW · 79 9 Feb 2016 · 498 MW · 58 10 Feb 2016 · 80 MW · 14 11 Feb 2016 · 46 MW · 16 12 Feb 2016 · 108 MW · 22 13 Feb 2016 · 2 MW · 1 14 Feb 2016 · 62 MW · 9 15 Feb 2016 · 120 MW · 27 16 Feb 2016 · 586 MW · 114 17 Feb 2016 · 1,056 MW · 122 18 Feb 2016 · 1,660 MW · 209 19 Feb 2016 · 1,303 MW · 160 20 Feb 2016 · 1,138 MW · 146 21 Feb 2016 · 403 MW · 78 22 Feb 2016 · 160 MW · 41 23 Feb 2016 · 1,505 MW · 210 24 Feb 2016 · 1,238 MW · 167 25 Feb 2016 · 4 MW · 3 26 Feb 2016 · 1,408 MW · 146 27 Feb 2016 · 623 MW · 106 28 Feb 2016 · 1,641 MW · 156 29 Feb 2016 · 1,127 MW · 117 1 Mar 2016 · 472 MW · 80 2 Mar 2016 · 321 MW · 36 3 Mar 2016 · 330 MW · 82 4 Mar 2016 · 111 MW · 23 5 Mar 2016 · 797 MW · 103 6 Mar 2016 · 416 MW · 72 7 Mar 2016 · 202 MW · 40 8 Mar 2016 · 281 MW · 61 9 Mar 2016 · 117 MW · 34 10 Mar 2016 · 275 MW · 29 11 Mar 2016 · 46 MW · 11 12 Mar 2016 · 208 MW · 34 13 Mar 2016 · 38 MW · 17 14 Mar 2016 · 258 MW · 16 15 Mar 2016 · 36 MW · 6 16 Mar 2016 · 288 MW · 6 17 Mar 2016 · 144 MW · 19 18 Mar 2016 · 62 MW · 14 19 Mar 2016 · 448 MW · 64 20 Mar 2016 · 885 MW · 39 21 Mar 2016 · 341 MW · 44 22 Mar 2016 · 259 MW · 30 23 Mar 2016 · 153 MW · 23 24 Mar 2016 · 131 MW · 41 25 Mar 2016 · 156 MW · 21 26 Mar 2016 · 59 MW · 7 27 Mar 2016 · 183 MW · 21 28 Mar 2016 · 466 MW · 66 29 Mar 2016 · 297 MW · 44 30 Mar 2016 · 190 MW · 48 31 Mar 2016 · 136 MW · 26 1 Apr 2016 · 72 MW · 12 2 Apr 2016 · 47 MW · 9 3 Apr 2016 · 50 MW · 9
21 Jan 1 Feb 12 Feb 18 Feb 23 Feb 5 Mar 16 Mar 27 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
76km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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 23% of the area of London (365 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. Kaev Seima
    25,041 ha
    8.8 %
  2. Snuol where it started
    11,714 ha
    4.1 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area1.9 ha
Residents≈ 650

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.9 hectares of built-up land and about 650 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
21 Jan 36.1 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Jan 35.5 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Jan 38.2 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Jan 32.2 °C 42 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Jan 29.1 °C 40 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan 31.5 °C 40 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jan 33.4 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jan 35.4 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Jan 36.0 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Jan 37.3 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Jan 37.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Feb 37.3 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Feb 34.5 °C 39 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Feb 34.4 °C 39 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Feb 34.8 °C 39 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Feb 34.0 °C 41 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Feb 32.0 °C 36 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Feb 28.8 °C 32 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Feb 30.7 °C 36 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Feb 33.6 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Feb 35.0 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Feb 34.8 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Feb 35.2 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Feb 34.7 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Feb 35.9 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Feb 36.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Feb 34.8 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Feb 34.3 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Feb 34.3 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Feb 35.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Feb 34.4 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Feb 34.5 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Feb 35.9 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Feb 36.7 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Feb 35.4 °C 32 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Feb 31.8 °C 41 % 76 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Feb 33.4 °C 40 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Feb 34.1 °C 39 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Feb 34.8 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Feb 33.7 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Mar 34.3 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Mar 34.7 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Mar 35.4 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Mar 35.6 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Mar 35.9 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Mar 36.5 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Mar 36.0 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Mar 36.4 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Mar 36.5 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Mar 36.1 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Mar 37.1 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Mar 36.3 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Mar 34.5 °C 49 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Mar 36.7 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Mar 34.3 °C 49 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm High 26
16 Mar 36.2 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Mar 36.6 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Mar 35.5 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Mar 36.9 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Mar 36.5 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Mar 36.5 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Mar 36.9 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Mar 36.4 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar 36.0 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.9 mm High 25
25 Mar 35.6 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Mar 35.9 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar 34.3 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Mar 35.0 °C 35 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Mar 35.6 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Mar 35.8 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Mar 36.2 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Apr 36.2 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Apr 36.1 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr after 35.6 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Apr after 35.3 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
5 Apr after 35.6 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
6 Apr after 37.1 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Apr after 36.3 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Apr after 36.3 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Apr after 35.5 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Apr after 35.6 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Apr after 36.6 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Apr after 35.8 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jan 2016
After · 9 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 · 4,653Every 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 Snuol fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2016 and 2 April 2016: 73 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 36,542 hectares (365.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kaev Seima (25,041 ha, 8.8 %); Snuol (11,714 ha, 4.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 4,653 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.