Burned area
satellite only2,738ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 23 Jan 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
KH · Cambodia · –
Thala Barivat fire, 23 January 2021 Thala Barivat
Out · last detection 16 Feb 2021, 06:28 UTC
The fire started on 23 January 2021 in Thala Barivat, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,738 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 58th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 102 with a page). Number 29 in Cambodia in 2021, of 69.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only24days
23 Jan 2021 to 15 Feb 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Feb 2021, 06:28 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only23 Jan 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 23 Jan 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only150
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 29 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 23 Jan 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only142MW
Total radiative power on 12 February 2021; hotspots that day: 26.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 12 Feb 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model25.2FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 52.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 23 Jan 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model34.6°C · 42% RH
High of 34.6 °C and minimum humidity of 42% on 8 February 2021; gusts of 36 km/h on 31 January 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 23 Jan 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 8 February 2021 → 15 February 2021.
-
logStart date: 25 January 2021 → 23 January 2021.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,738 ha
- Dates
- 23 Jan 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
- Name
- Thala Barivat
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/thala-barivat-2021-01?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire thala-barivat-2021-01.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-23 | 1 | 5 | 32.8 | 23.8 | 43 | 9.7 | 29.2 | 0 | 25.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-24 | 0 | 0 | 32.7 | 23.7 | 46 | 10.9 | 24.8 | 0 | 24.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-25 | 2 | 11 | 34.4 | 22.6 | 38 | 8.9 | 24.5 | 0 | 24 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-26 | 4 | 6 | 34 | 22.9 | 40 | 12.1 | 28.1 | 0 | 26.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-27 | 0 | 0 | 34.3 | 23 | 37 | 12.9 | 30.6 | 0 | 27.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-28 | 1 | 1 | 33.3 | 23.4 | 43 | 14.1 | 34.2 | 0.5 | 28.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-29 | 8 | 52 | 31.9 | 21.9 | 37 | 14.8 | 32.8 | 0 | 29.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-30 | 8 | 64 | 32.2 | 20.2 | 34 | 12.2 | 32.4 | 0 | 27.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-01-31 | 8 | 99 | 32.9 | 21.6 | 36 | 13 | 35.6 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-01 | 9 | 56 | 33.3 | 21.3 | 38 | 12.2 | 28.8 | 0 | 28.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-02 | 4 | 14 | 33.6 | 21 | 36 | 13.3 | 26.3 | 0 | 29.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-03 | 21 | 61 | 33.6 | 21.1 | 29 | 14.3 | 30.6 | 0 | 33.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-04 | 10 | 90 | 32.8 | 20.6 | 28 | 14.2 | 33.5 | 0 | 33.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-05 | 3 | 8 | 33.7 | 20.9 | 35 | 11.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 32.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-06 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 20.7 | 36 | 13.7 | 28.4 | 0 | 34 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-07 | 11 | 42 | 33.8 | 22.1 | 38 | 12.1 | 30.2 | 0 | 32.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-08 | 3 | 11 | 34.6 | 23.7 | 42 | 13.1 | 34.6 | 0.6 | 26.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-09 | 5 | 94 | 32.9 | 24.2 | 48 | 12.6 | 33.5 | 0.2 | 26.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-10 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 21.5 | 52 | 11 | 28.4 | 3.1 | 6.8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-02-11 | 9 | 38 | 32.5 | 21.3 | 35 | 11.9 | 22.3 | 0 | 21.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-12 | 26 | 142 | 33.5 | 20 | 27 | 11.6 | 21.2 | 0 | 30.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-13 | 8 | 24 | 33.2 | 19.5 | 30 | 10 | 26.6 | 0 | 29.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-14 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 19.8 | 33 | 11.4 | 29.5 | 0 | 30.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-15 | 2 | 12 | 33.4 | 20.1 | 34 | 10.5 | 25.9 | 0 | 30.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-02-16 | 7 | 77 | 33.5 | 20.4 | 36 | 10.2 | 26.3 | 0 | 30.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-17 | 0 | 0 | 32.9 | 21.5 | 33 | 12.2 | 32.4 | 0 | 32.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-18 | 0 | 0 | 32.6 | 21 | 35 | 14.7 | 33.8 | 0 | 34.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-19 | 0 | 0 | 32.7 | 20.2 | 34 | 13.6 | 35.6 | 0 | 34.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-20 | 0 | 0 | 32.6 | 20.3 | 29 | 13.3 | 29.9 | 0 | 34.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-21 | 0 | 0 | 33.4 | 19.9 | 32 | 12.6 | 27.7 | 0 | 34 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-22 | 0 | 0 | 34.3 | 19.5 | 31 | 11.4 | 24.8 | 0 | 33.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 20.8 | 35 | 11.1 | 23.8 | 0 | 33.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-24 | 0 | 0 | 34.4 | 21.8 | 39 | 11.7 | 26.3 | 0 | 32.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-02-25 | 0 | 0 | 35.4 | 23.1 | 37 | 8.7 | 22 | 0 | 30.1 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,738ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 23 Jan 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 150
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 45MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
23 Jan15 Feb
16 Feb 2021
How it evolved, day by day
23 Jan
29 Jan
2 Feb
7 Feb
12 Feb
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
36km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity
It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 77 ha in 2016, 1,320 ha in 2017, 73 ha in 2018, 96 ha in 2019, 2,103 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,303 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Thala Barivat where it started2,757 ha reached on 23 Jan1.0 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 32.8 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Jan | 32.7 °C | 46 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Jan | 34.4 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Jan | 34.0 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Jan | 34.3 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Jan | 33.3 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jan | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jan | 32.2 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jan | 32.9 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Feb | 33.3 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Feb | 33.6 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Feb | 33.6 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Feb | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Feb | 33.7 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Feb | 33.5 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Feb | 33.8 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Feb | 34.6 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Feb | 32.9 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Feb | 30.3 °C | 52 % | 28 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 11 Feb | 32.5 °C | 35 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Feb | 33.5 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Feb | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 14 Feb | 33.0 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Feb | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Feb after | 33.5 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Feb after | 32.9 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Feb after | 32.7 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Feb after | 33.4 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Feb after | 34.3 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 37 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 25.2, a minimum humidity of 43% and 52 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.
FWI at the start
25.2
Minimum humidity
43 %
Days without rain
52
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Thala Barivat fire, 23 January 2021
2,738 ha
24 days
FWI 25.2
Min. humidity 43 %
Thala Barivat fire, March 2016
2,430 ha
23 days
FWI 25.1
Min. humidity 44 %
34 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Thala Barivat fire, February 2020
2,663 ha
13 days
FWI 26.1
Min. humidity 43 %
41 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Thala Barivat fire, January 2020
3,566 ha
16 days
FWI 23.0
Min. humidity 42 %
33 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sesan fire, February 2020
3,137 ha
27 days
FWI 26.6
Min. humidity 43 %
70 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 14 Mar.
Sambour fire, February 2020
2,291 ha
23 days
FWI 25.0
Min. humidity 42 %
89 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 20 days
- median duration
- 2,573 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.2 mm
- rain at the end (median; 4 of 19 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (2,738 ha against a median of 2,573 ha) and lasted 24 days, against 20 days.
In 15 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.2 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
36km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 15 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 4 of 19, with a median of 1.2 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 16 Jan 2021
After · 22 Feb 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 150Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 76,338 haChhaeb9 January 2026 · 52 days · 8 km away
- 7,380 haChhaebFebruary 2017 · 17 days · 13 km away
- 10,550 haThala Barivat17 February 2017 · 26 days · 16 km away
- 7,376 haThala Barivat17 February 2022 · 23 days · 24 km away
- 6,595 haThala Barivat31 December 2018 · 37 days · 27 km away
- 15,837 haThala Barivat6 February 2020 · 30 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Thala Barivat fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 January 2021 to 15 February 2021 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 January 2021 to 8 February 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,738 hectares (27.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Thala Barivat (2,757 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 20 days and their median area 2,573 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.2 mm.
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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 8 February 2021 → 15 February 2021.
- Start date: 25 January 2021 → 23 January 2021.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 January 2021 to 8 February 2021. 150 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.