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Cariboo J fire, 6 July 2023 Cariboo J, Bulkley-Nechako E

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2023, 10:17 UTC

The fire started on 6 July 2023 in Cariboo J, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 101 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 12,403 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 census subdivisions.

It is the 86th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 143 in Canada in 2023, of 489.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cariboo J · 2018Cariboo J · 2018Cariboo J · 2023Cariboo J · 2018

Burnt area
12,403ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
101days
6 Jul 2023 – 14 Oct 2023
Census subdivisions hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Jul
2023
Heat detections
3,000
in a single hotspot: 559 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
813MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jul14 Oct
15 Oct 2023

How it evolved, day by day

7 Jul 2023 · 24 MW · 7 8 Jul 2023 · 66 MW · 25 9 Jul 2023 · 2,358 MW · 66 10 Jul 2023 · 651 MW · 49 11 Jul 2023 · 10,860 MW · 287 12 Jul 2023 · 3,827 MW · 411 13 Jul 2023 · 1,454 MW · 403 14 Jul 2023 · 587 MW · 79 15 Jul 2023 · 875 MW · 182 16 Jul 2023 · 105 MW · 34 17 Jul 2023 · 68 MW · 17 18 Jul 2023 · 394 MW · 30 19 Jul 2023 · 368 MW · 79 20 Jul 2023 · 845 MW · 89 21 Jul 2023 · 65 MW · 46 22 Jul 2023 · 1 MW · 1 1 Aug 2023 · 21 MW · 2 4 Aug 2023 · 3 MW · 1 5 Aug 2023 · 59 MW · 4 6 Aug 2023 · 1 MW · 1 14 Aug 2023 · 14 MW · 3 16 Aug 2023 · 411 MW · 25 17 Aug 2023 · 11,421 MW · 168 18 Aug 2023 · 68 MW · 30 19 Aug 2023 · 384 MW · 47 20 Aug 2023 · 238 MW · 40 21 Aug 2023 · 1,391 MW · 47 22 Aug 2023 · 298 MW · 135 25 Aug 2023 · 8 MW · 5 26 Aug 2023 · 181 MW · 27 27 Aug 2023 · 1,590 MW · 168 28 Aug 2023 · 2,265 MW · 246 29 Aug 2023 · 3 MW · 2 2 Sept 2023 · 232 MW · 40 3 Sept 2023 · 354 MW · 43 4 Sept 2023 · 2 MW · 2 8 Sept 2023 · 7 MW · 1 11 Sept 2023 · 2 MW · 1 14 Sept 2023 · 3 MW · 1 15 Sept 2023 · 300 MW · 41 16 Sept 2023 · 22 MW · 7 17 Sept 2023 · 6 MW · 4 18 Sept 2023 · 1 MW · 1 22 Sept 2023 · 0 MW · 1 7 Oct 2023 · 5 MW · 2 8 Oct 2023 · 135 MW · 15 9 Oct 2023 · 237 MW · 73 10 Oct 2023 · 4 MW · 2 12 Oct 2023 · 15 MW · 1 13 Oct 2023 · 8 MW · 4 14 Oct 2023 · 25 MW · 4 15 Oct 2023 · 3 MW · 1
7 Jul 15 Jul 1 Aug 17 Aug 19 Aug 29 Aug 16 Sept 12 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
61km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 139 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.8% of the area of London (124 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 census subdivision

  1. Cariboo J where it started
    9,205 ha reached on 7 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. Bulkley-Nechako E
    3,382 ha reached on 11 Jul
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each census subdivision, from crossing the official 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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
6 Jul 24.4 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
7 Jul 23.2 °C 39 % 25 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 3
8 Jul 24.2 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.8 mm Low 7
9 Jul 23.1 °C 44 % 32 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 4
10 Jul 22.5 °C 40 % 31 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 3
11 Jul 21.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
12 Jul 22.1 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
13 Jul 21.4 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
14 Jul 19.8 °C 53 % 20 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 5
15 Jul 21.0 °C 45 % 30 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 3
16 Jul 18.4 °C 50 % 39 km/h 6.8 mm Very low 1
17 Jul 15.7 °C 51 % 48 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 2
18 Jul 18.1 °C 51 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
19 Jul 24.5 °C 37 % 16 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 2
20 Jul 26.2 °C 33 % 25 km/h 1.6 mm Low 5
21 Jul 19.9 °C 57 % 27 km/h 5.0 mm Very low 0
22 Jul 17.9 °C 52 % 37 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 0
23 Jul 15.6 °C 50 % 26 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 0
24 Jul 16.7 °C 52 % 22 km/h 9.9 mm Very low 0
25 Jul 11.1 °C 71 % 46 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 0
26 Jul 18.0 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
27 Jul 17.0 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
28 Jul 19.8 °C 46 % 32 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 1
29 Jul 20.1 °C 45 % 21 km/h 9.0 mm Very low 0
30 Jul 18.2 °C 43 % 32 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 1
31 Jul 18.2 °C 45 % 32 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 1
1 Aug 18.5 °C 42 % 30 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 0
2 Aug 17.5 °C 42 % 30 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 0
3 Aug 21.9 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
4 Aug 24.4 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
5 Aug 26.5 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
6 Aug 23.2 °C 44 % 23 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 2
7 Aug 21.8 °C 41 % 32 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 4
8 Aug 16.6 °C 70 % 24 km/h 5.6 mm Very low 0
9 Aug 16.0 °C 57 % 45 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 0
10 Aug 16.5 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 1
11 Aug 15.5 °C 62 % 35 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 0
12 Aug 21.2 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
13 Aug 26.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
14 Aug 26.3 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
15 Aug 25.6 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
16 Aug 28.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
17 Aug 22.0 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
18 Aug 15.3 °C 36 % 38 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 3
19 Aug 19.2 °C 30 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
20 Aug 19.2 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
21 Aug 22.2 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Aug 19.0 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm Low 8
23 Aug 16.0 °C 58 % 34 km/h 10.4 mm Very low 0
24 Aug 20.2 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 1
25 Aug 22.1 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
26 Aug 24.0 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
27 Aug 27.0 °C 17 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
28 Aug 28.2 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
29 Aug 18.7 °C 60 % 25 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 4
30 Aug 17.5 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
31 Aug 17.0 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm Low 10
1 Sept 23.8 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
2 Sept 23.8 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Sept 17.8 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
4 Sept 15.1 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Sept 10.8 °C 61 % 18 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 0
6 Sept 12.5 °C 60 % 28 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 1
7 Sept 15.7 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
8 Sept 20.0 °C 25 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Sept 23.3 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
10 Sept 22.9 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Sept 17.9 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 15
12 Sept 14.7 °C 61 % 42 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 4
13 Sept 14.8 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
14 Sept 22.3 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
15 Sept 17.4 °C 35 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Sept 17.1 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
17 Sept 15.2 °C 51 % 57 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 5
18 Sept 11.3 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.5 mm Low 6
19 Sept 9.9 °C 63 % 45 km/h 5.5 mm Very low 0
20 Sept 13.9 °C 43 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
21 Sept 19.9 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
22 Sept 19.7 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Sept 12.9 °C 46 % 32 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 1
24 Sept 16.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
25 Sept 14.4 °C 44 % 45 km/h 0.7 mm Low 6
26 Sept 13.0 °C 48 % 44 km/h 0.7 mm Low 7
27 Sept 12.4 °C 53 % 26 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 3
28 Sept 8.6 °C 58 % 28 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 0
29 Sept 9.5 °C 58 % 17 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 1
30 Sept 11.9 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
1 Oct 11.4 °C 60 % 30 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 2
2 Oct 11.6 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 4
3 Oct 12.0 °C 63 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
4 Oct 10.2 °C 65 % 31 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 2
5 Oct 16.5 °C 55 % 20 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 1
6 Oct 19.1 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
7 Oct 21.8 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
8 Oct 17.1 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
9 Oct 14.3 °C 45 % 46 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 3
10 Oct 10.9 °C 51 % 22 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 1
11 Oct 11.9 °C 56 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
12 Oct 15.0 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
13 Oct 13.9 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
14 Oct 14.2 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
15 Oct after 13.5 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
16 Oct after 12.2 °C 60 % 36 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jun 2023
After · 21 Oct 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 21 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 540 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 314: 21 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak540 µg/m³
Days over the guideline47 days
PM10771 µg/m³
Optical depth9.78
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Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 3,000Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 July 2023 to 14 October 2023 (101 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 July 2023 to 12 October 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 12,403 hectares (124.0 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire entered 2 census subdivisions: Cariboo J (9,205 ha, 0.3 %); Bulkley-Nechako E (3,382 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 12 October 2023 → 14 October 2023.

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.

Report an error
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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 July 2023 to 12 October 2023. 3,000 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 2025, 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 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.