Border 2 Fire, July 2026 Whatcom
The fire started on 17 July 2026 in Whatcom, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 9,654 hectares, spread across a single county.
It is the 43th largest in Washington since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 63 in United States in 2026, of 423.
- Burnt area
- 9,654ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- 1day
- 17 Jul 2026 – 17 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 17 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,388
- in a single hotspot: 325 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 83 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Whatcom where it started3,696 ha reached on 21 Jul0.7 %
Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jul | 19.8 °C | 47 % | 10 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 18 Jul after | 17.0 °C | 45 % | 9 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 19 Jul after | 24.9 °C | 23 % | 7 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 20 Jul after | 26.6 °C | 20 % | 8 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 21 Jul after | 31.2 °C | 15 % | 9 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 14 % | 8 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Jul after | 29.5 °C | 26 % | 12 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Jul after | 26.9 °C | 25 % | 10 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Jul after | 22.0 °C | 36 % | 13 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Jul after | 19.9 °C | 35 % | 11 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Jul after | 21.5 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 22 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 1,388Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,045 haFraser Valley B21 July 2026 · 39 days · 3 km away
- 5,949 haFraser Valley BAugust 2018 · 35 days · 12 km away
- 14,007 haParks OkanoganAugust 2022 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 7,348 haOkanagan-Similkameen HAugust 2022 · 60 days · 27 km away
- 14,140 haOkanagan-Similkameen HJuly 2021 · 104 days · 33 km away
- 14,325 haOkanagan-Similkameen HJuly 2026 · 30 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Border 2 fire last?
- It burned between 17 July 2026 and 17 July 2026: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
- How much area did it burn?
- The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 9,654 hectares (96.5 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire only entered Whatcom (3,696 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 19.8 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 10 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. 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.
Emergency number: 911
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
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
Where this data comes from
The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.