Skip to content
worldfires
CA · Canada · →

Cariboo J fire, 1 August 2018 Cariboo J

Out · last detection 8 Sept 2018, 10:48 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2018 in Cariboo J, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 8,770 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 122th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 45 in Canada in 2018, of 212.

Burnt area
8,770ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
38days
1 Aug 2018 – 7 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2018
Heat detections
1,320
in a single hotspot: 860 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
37.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314151617181920212223242728478

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
64km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.6 mm on 9 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cariboo J where it started
    8,951 ha reached on 30 Jul
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each census subdivision, 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)
30 Jul 29.5 °C 24 % 21 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
31 Jul 26.4 °C 36 % 29 km/h 1.3 mm Low 8
1 Aug 24.5 °C 36 % 44 km/h 1.7 mm Low 7
2 Aug 20.1 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 12
3 Aug 19.1 °C 49 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 13
4 Aug 20.6 °C 43 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
5 Aug 24.3 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Aug 25.5 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Aug 26.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Aug 26.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Aug 26.3 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Aug 25.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Aug 16.8 °C 34 % 34 km/h 1.6 mm Low 8
12 Aug 22.2 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Aug 24.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
14 Aug 24.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Aug 20.2 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
16 Aug 23.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Aug 21.6 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Aug 21.3 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Aug 22.5 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Aug 24.0 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Aug 27.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Aug 22.5 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Aug 15.4 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Aug 17.9 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Aug 14.3 °C 57 % 40 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 5
26 Aug 14.3 °C 51 % 45 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 2
27 Aug 19.8 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
28 Aug 20.9 °C 40 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
29 Aug 14.7 °C 56 % 46 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 1
30 Aug 14.9 °C 43 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
31 Aug 14.1 °C 50 % 64 km/h 2.1 mm Low 5
1 Sept 14.0 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Low 6
2 Sept 12.2 °C 57 % 56 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 4
3 Sept 12.8 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
4 Sept 17.3 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
5 Sept 18.3 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Sept 17.6 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Sept 18.4 °C 42 % 30 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 4
8 Sept after 15.5 °C 49 % 30 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 2
9 Sept after 13.0 °C 68 % 33 km/h 6.6 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jul 2018
After · 14 Sept 2018

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 · 1,320Every 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 Canada ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cariboo J fire last?
It burned between 1 August 2018 and 7 September 2018: 38 days, according to the dates recorded by Canada’s CWFIS and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 8,770 hectares (87.7 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Cariboo J (8,951 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the official burnt perimeter of Canada’s CWFIS (NBAC, Natural Resources Canada) or, for the current season and until NBAC publishes it, the one rebuilt by GWIS (Copernicus); from NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots; and from the administrative boundaries of Canada. 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

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. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official: it comes from the National Burned Area Composite (NBAC) of the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS), Natural Resources Canada, which maps it on satellite imagery and publishes it under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Until NBAC publishes the current season, this year’s fires carry the perimeter rebuilt from heat detections by GWIS (Copernicus, CC BY 4.0), which is approximate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Census subdivision boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per census subdivision is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.