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Cariboo K fire, 7 July 2017 Cariboo I, Cariboo K, Cariboo J

Out · last detection 8 Nov 2017, 20:38 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2017 in Cariboo K, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 125 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 410,352 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 census subdivisions.

It is the 3th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). The largest in Canada in 2017, of 242.

Compare with…
Burnt area
410,352ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
125days
7 Jul 2017 – 8 Nov 2017
Census subdivisions hit
7
municipalities
Started on
7 Jul
2017
Heat detections
53,646
in a single hotspot: 1,447 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
11.8GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul8 Nov
8 Nov 2017

How it evolved, day by day

8 Jul 2017 · 3,977 MW · 202 9 Jul 2017 · 52,278 MW · 614 10 Jul 2017 · 3,234 MW · 690 11 Jul 2017 · 13,835 MW · 844 12 Jul 2017 · 2,198 MW · 109 13 Jul 2017 · 2,387 MW · 273 14 Jul 2017 · 7,468 MW · 599 15 Jul 2017 · 91,081 MW · 1938 16 Jul 2017 · 7,503 MW · 933 17 Jul 2017 · 15,837 MW · 1035 18 Jul 2017 · 10,476 MW · 1290 19 Jul 2017 · 11,500 MW · 1044 20 Jul 2017 · 104 MW · 64 23 Jul 2017 · 32 MW · 9 24 Jul 2017 · 298 MW · 32 25 Jul 2017 · 8,664 MW · 364 26 Jul 2017 · 546 MW · 255 27 Jul 2017 · 6,453 MW · 306 28 Jul 2017 · 1,633 MW · 184 29 Jul 2017 · 1,209 MW · 204 30 Jul 2017 · 22,144 MW · 1490 31 Jul 2017 · 11,022 MW · 1366 1 Aug 2017 · 31,514 MW · 1894 2 Aug 2017 · 24,192 MW · 1904 3 Aug 2017 · 50,819 MW · 2402 4 Aug 2017 · 86,230 MW · 4622 5 Aug 2017 · 26,731 MW · 3129 6 Aug 2017 · 21,647 MW · 2346 7 Aug 2017 · 27,188 MW · 2291 8 Aug 2017 · 32,484 MW · 2653 9 Aug 2017 · 19,686 MW · 2038 10 Aug 2017 · 34,359 MW · 2355 11 Aug 2017 · 63,590 MW · 2813 12 Aug 2017 · 68,034 MW · 1704 13 Aug 2017 · 14,689 MW · 468 14 Aug 2017 · 8,177 MW · 1451 15 Aug 2017 · 1,009 MW · 210 16 Aug 2017 · 11,299 MW · 687 17 Aug 2017 · 11,709 MW · 1411 18 Aug 2017 · 2,515 MW · 804 19 Aug 2017 · 3,173 MW · 460 22 Aug 2017 · 125 MW · 15 23 Aug 2017 · 864 MW · 76 24 Aug 2017 · 111 MW · 23 25 Aug 2017 · 69 MW · 17 26 Aug 2017 · 140 MW · 25 27 Aug 2017 · 291 MW · 123 28 Aug 2017 · 4,297 MW · 454 29 Aug 2017 · 18,172 MW · 947 30 Aug 2017 · 13,497 MW · 813 31 Aug 2017 · 12,767 MW · 1090 1 Sept 2017 · 6 MW · 1 2 Sept 2017 · 192 MW · 78 3 Sept 2017 · 8 MW · 9 4 Sept 2017 · 117 MW · 14 5 Sept 2017 · 367 MW · 55 6 Sept 2017 · 1,334 MW · 256 7 Sept 2017 · 32 MW · 19 11 Sept 2017 · 1 MW · 1 14 Sept 2017 · 10 MW · 2 15 Sept 2017 · 59 MW · 6 16 Sept 2017 · 65 MW · 15 17 Sept 2017 · 0 MW · 1 19 Oct 2017 · 10 MW · 2 20 Oct 2017 · 144 MW · 10 21 Oct 2017 · 464 MW · 5 22 Oct 2017 · 449 MW · 16 23 Oct 2017 · 31 MW · 3 24 Oct 2017 · 29 MW · 4 25 Oct 2017 · 17 MW · 1 3 Nov 2017 · 59 MW · 3 5 Nov 2017 · 1,952 MW · 26 6 Nov 2017 · 2,098 MW · 34 8 Nov 2017 · 676 MW · 15
8 Jul 15 Jul 19 Jul 1 Aug 12 Aug 25 Aug 5 Sept 22 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

30°high
81km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 13 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.6 times the area of London (4,104 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 I
    222,753 ha reached on 8 Jul
    18 %
  2. Cariboo K where it started
    96,464 ha reached on 8 Jul
    7.0 %
  3. Cariboo J
    92,040 ha reached on 8 Jul
    3.4 %
  4. Alexis Creek 34
    131 ha reached on 12 Aug
    100 %
  5. Coglistiko River 29
    55 ha
    82 %
  6. Baezaeko River 27
    1 ha
    4.8 %
  7. Sundayman's Meadow 3
    1 ha
    1.7 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
7 Jul 27.3 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Jul 24.3 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Jul 21.2 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
10 Jul 17.2 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Jul 20.4 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Jul 20.1 °C 40 % 32 km/h 1.6 mm Low 9
13 Jul 17.7 °C 48 % 28 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 2
14 Jul 21.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
15 Jul 19.9 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
16 Jul 14.5 °C 46 % 57 km/h 1.4 mm Low 8
17 Jul 19.7 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 Jul 22.8 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Jul 22.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 12
20 Jul 13.5 °C 78 % 27 km/h 10.4 mm Very low 0
21 Jul 17.5 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
22 Jul 20.5 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
23 Jul 15.6 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
24 Jul 23.9 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Jul 25.9 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
26 Jul 23.1 °C 35 % 39 km/h 1.8 mm Low 10
27 Jul 20.6 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
28 Jul 20.6 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Jul 23.2 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
30 Jul 22.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
31 Jul 24.1 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Aug 24.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Aug 27.7 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Aug 28.7 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Aug 24.8 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Aug 26.9 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Aug 28.5 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Aug 27.9 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Aug 27.8 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Aug 29.6 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Aug 30.5 °C 17 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 28.7 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug 25.4 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.8 mm High 34
13 Aug 16.1 °C 45 % 40 km/h 6.3 mm Very low 3
14 Aug 17.8 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
15 Aug 18.8 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
16 Aug 21.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
17 Aug 22.5 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Aug 16.2 °C 39 % 57 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 4
19 Aug 18.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
20 Aug 16.8 °C 56 % 23 km/h 6.7 mm Very low 0
21 Aug 20.2 °C 61 % 28 km/h 7.7 mm Very low 0
22 Aug 24.9 °C 43 % 32 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 1
23 Aug 21.4 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
24 Aug 14.9 °C 39 % 43 km/h 1.0 mm Low 6
25 Aug 17.3 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
26 Aug 21.4 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
27 Aug 24.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
28 Aug 25.1 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Aug 26.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Aug 22.4 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 16
31 Aug 19.3 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
1 Sept 19.3 °C 40 % 27 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 3
2 Sept 17.3 °C 70 % 41 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 1
3 Sept 19.7 °C 54 % 18 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 1
4 Sept 23.7 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
5 Sept 25.8 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Sept 25.1 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Sept 19.9 °C 59 % 27 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 1
8 Sept 16.9 °C 68 % 21 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 0
9 Sept 16.2 °C 48 % 49 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 1
10 Sept 14.5 °C 48 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
11 Sept 17.0 °C 46 % 56 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 2
12 Sept 13.1 °C 46 % 29 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 1
13 Sept 12.6 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 3
14 Sept 15.4 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
15 Sept 17.5 °C 28 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
16 Sept 18.3 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
17 Sept 11.4 °C 45 % 44 km/h 9.4 mm Very low 0
18 Sept 9.5 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 1
19 Sept 10.5 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 2
20 Sept 6.9 °C 72 % 53 km/h 8.8 mm Very low 0
21 Sept 11.3 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
22 Sept 10.2 °C 47 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
23 Sept 13.3 °C 61 % 18 km/h 1.4 mm Very low 1
24 Sept 14.4 °C 71 % 28 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 0
25 Sept 15.5 °C 60 % 26 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 0
26 Sept 17.9 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
27 Sept 21.2 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
28 Sept 21.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
29 Sept 14.1 °C 61 % 36 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 0
30 Sept 8.0 °C 64 % 38 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 0
1 Oct 7.2 °C 57 % 47 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 1
2 Oct 7.4 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
3 Oct 11.5 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
4 Oct 15.2 °C 24 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
5 Oct 16.8 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
6 Oct 11.2 °C 36 % 81 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 4
7 Oct 7.9 °C 52 % 47 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 0
8 Oct 10.2 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
9 Oct 6.8 °C 58 % 34 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 0
10 Oct 2.0 °C 80 % 46 km/h 14.1 mm Very low 0
11 Oct 3.0 °C 57 % 44 km/h 3.4 mm Very low 0
12 Oct 1.2 °C 72 % 17 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 0
13 Oct 1.3 °C 67 % 31 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 0
14 Oct 5.1 °C 77 % 35 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 0
15 Oct 9.5 °C 56 % 52 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 0
16 Oct 10.6 °C 73 % 53 km/h 7.5 mm Very low 0
17 Oct 6.4 °C 30 % 77 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 0
18 Oct 4.5 °C 70 % 61 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 0
19 Oct 9.7 °C 43 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
20 Oct 6.6 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
21 Oct 4.6 °C 60 % 50 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 0
22 Oct 8.6 °C 43 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
23 Oct 8.1 °C 55 % 56 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 0
24 Oct 13.5 °C 60 % 63 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 1
25 Oct 9.2 °C 53 % 56 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 0
26 Oct 7.6 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
27 Oct 12.6 °C 56 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
28 Oct 14.3 °C 57 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
29 Oct 6.7 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
30 Oct 6.4 °C 39 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
31 Oct 11.4 °C 52 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
1 Nov 3.6 °C 62 % 60 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 1
2 Nov -5.7 °C 41 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
3 Nov -8.1 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
4 Nov -9.2 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
5 Nov -5.3 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
6 Nov -5.6 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
7 Nov -3.9 °C 58 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
8 Nov -1.5 °C 59 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
9 Nov after -1.4 °C 70 % 22 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 1
10 Nov after 1.6 °C 69 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 1
11 Nov after 0.3 °C 71 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 1
12 Nov after 2.7 °C 68 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 1
13 Nov after 3.2 °C 71 % 36 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jun 2017
After · 15 Nov 2017

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 · 53,646Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cariboo K fire last?
It burned between 7 July 2017 and 8 November 2017: 125 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 410,352 hectares (4,103.5 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire entered 7 census subdivisions: Cariboo I (222,753 ha, 18 %); Cariboo K (96,464 ha, 7.0 %); Cariboo J (92,040 ha, 3.4 %); Alexis Creek 34 (131 ha, 100 %); Coglistiko River 29 (55 ha, 82 %); Baezaeko River 27 (1 ha, 4.8 %); Sundayman's Meadow 3 (1 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 81 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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 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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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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 53,646 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 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.