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Central Kootenay D fire, August 2022 Central Kootenay D

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2022, 11:08 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2022 in Central Kootenay D, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 58 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,106 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 327th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 343 with a page). Number 181 in Canada in 2022, of 197.

Burnt area
1,106ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
58days
24 Aug 2022 – 20 Oct 2022
Census subdivisions hit
1
municipalities
Started on
24 Aug
2022
Heat detections
331
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
78MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug20 Oct
20 Oct 2022

How it evolved, day by day

5 Sept 2022 · 6 MW · 2 6 Sept 2022 · 66 MW · 14 7 Sept 2022 · 54 MW · 12 8 Sept 2022 · 516 MW · 54 9 Sept 2022 · 155 MW · 50 10 Sept 2022 · 677 MW · 51 11 Sept 2022 · 93 MW · 36 12 Sept 2022 · 25 MW · 16 27 Sept 2022 · 3 MW · 2 28 Sept 2022 · 5 MW · 5 5 Oct 2022 · 8 MW · 4 6 Oct 2022 · 21 MW · 6 7 Oct 2022 · 68 MW · 12 8 Oct 2022 · 10 MW · 6 9 Oct 2022 · 4 MW · 3 12 Oct 2022 · 10 MW · 1 13 Oct 2022 · 5 MW · 4 14 Oct 2022 · 5 MW · 2 15 Oct 2022 · 36 MW · 9 16 Oct 2022 · 4 MW · 2 17 Oct 2022 · 6 MW · 5 18 Oct 2022 · 34 MW · 12 19 Oct 2022 · 55 MW · 19 20 Oct 2022 · 7 MW · 4
5 Sept 10 Sept 5 Oct 12 Oct 17 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

33°high
67km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.8 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (11 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. Central Kootenay D where it started
    1,097 ha reached on 5 Sept
    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 2020
Built-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)
24 Aug 29.3 °C 47 % 39 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 5
25 Aug 28.4 °C 50 % 20 km/h 10.3 mm Very low 1
26 Aug 27.6 °C 52 % 38 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 3
27 Aug 18.2 °C 57 % 62 km/h 7.8 mm Very low 0
28 Aug 21.5 °C 44 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
29 Aug 27.8 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm Low 7
30 Aug 33.0 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
31 Aug 33.2 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 21
1 Sept 30.9 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
2 Sept 33.4 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Sept 32.8 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Sept 29.7 °C 30 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Sept 24.1 °C 26 % 59 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
6 Sept 29.2 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Sept 27.2 °C 23 % 65 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
8 Sept 22.9 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Sept 23.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Sept 29.0 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Sept 26.6 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 22.6 °C 52 % 26 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 3
13 Sept 23.2 °C 52 % 26 km/h 1.4 mm Very low 4
14 Sept 21.1 °C 58 % 31 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 0
15 Sept 20.4 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
16 Sept 18.7 °C 58 % 49 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 0
17 Sept 18.7 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
18 Sept 22.5 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
19 Sept 17.6 °C 46 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm Low 10
20 Sept 20.7 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
21 Sept 25.9 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Sept 21.8 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Sept 17.8 °C 51 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
24 Sept 20.8 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
25 Sept 26.4 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Sept 28.4 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Sept 29.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Sept 29.0 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Sept 21.5 °C 43 % 26 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 3
30 Sept 23.2 °C 54 % 22 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 5
1 Oct 27.6 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
2 Oct 26.9 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Oct 26.9 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
4 Oct 26.7 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Oct 25.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Oct 26.8 °C 31 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
7 Oct 25.3 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Oct 24.7 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
9 Oct 24.0 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Oct 22.3 °C 40 % 67 km/h 2.2 mm Low 7
11 Oct 17.3 °C 45 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 Oct 19.6 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
13 Oct 22.9 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Oct 21.3 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
15 Oct 22.4 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
16 Oct 25.3 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Oct 25.0 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Oct 23.6 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Oct 22.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Oct 15.8 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
21 Oct after 10.6 °C 74 % 31 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 5.1, a minimum humidity of 47% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.

FWI at the start 5.1
Minimum humidity 47 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Columbia-Shuswap A fire, July 2023
1,558 ha 30 days FWI 0.1 Min. humidity 47 % 143 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.2 mm on 9 Aug.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

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

4.8 mmfirst rain
21 Octthe day after it ended
67km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Oct, and on 21 Oct 4.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.

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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2022
After · 27 Oct 2022

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 12 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 210 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 94: 6.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak210 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10301 µg/m³
Optical depth1.15
22 Aug4 Sept17 Sept30 Sept13 Oct
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 · 331Every 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 Central Kootenay D fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 August 2022 to 20 October 2022 (58 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2022 to 19 October 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 1,106 hectares (11.1 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Central Kootenay D (1,097 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 August 2022 to 19 October 2022. 331 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.

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.