How long did the Clearwater County fire last?

It burned between 29 July 2018 and 22 August 2018: 25 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 1,823 hectares (18.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Clearwater County (1,803 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.

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.

CA · Canada · 2018-07-29 → 2018-08-22

Clearwater County fire, July 2018 Clearwater County

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2018, 20:37 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2018 in Clearwater County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,823 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 173th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 159 in Canada in 2018, of 212.

Burnt area: 1,823ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 25days; 29 Jul 2018 – 22 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 29 Jul; 2018
Heat detections: 346; in a single hotspot: 639 MW
Danger at start: 7; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 14.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Aug 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

303112368910112223

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

The weather it burned in

27°high

67km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.3 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Clearwater County where it started

1,803 ha reached on 30 Jul

0.1 %

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)
29 Jul	23.5 °C	30 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
30 Jul	24.5 °C	32 %	38 km/h	1.5 mm	Very low 4
31 Jul	23.9 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.8 mm	Very low 5
1 Aug	22.6 °C	30 %	42 km/h	3.5 mm	Very low 1
2 Aug	17.5 °C	38 %	59 km/h	0.5 mm	Very low 5
3 Aug	14.2 °C	57 %	51 km/h	0.8 mm	Very low 3
4 Aug	14.1 °C	60 %	28 km/h	4.2 mm	Very low 0
5 Aug	19.2 °C	41 %	22 km/h	0.3 mm	Very low 1
6 Aug	20.3 °C	40 %	59 km/h	0.3 mm	Very low 5
7 Aug	21.7 °C	27 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
8 Aug	23.4 °C	28 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
9 Aug	26.3 °C	22 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
10 Aug	26.8 °C	20 %	67 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
11 Aug	18.5 °C	50 %	53 km/h	13.0 mm	Very low 0
12 Aug	11.2 °C	74 %	41 km/h	13.1 mm	Very low 0
13 Aug	17.3 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 0
14 Aug	20.0 °C	43 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
15 Aug	19.4 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 4
16 Aug	21.3 °C	30 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
17 Aug	21.1 °C	28 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
18 Aug	14.3 °C	46 %	29 km/h	1.0 mm	Very low 3
19 Aug	15.1 °C	46 %	28 km/h	4.2 mm	Very low 0
20 Aug	17.7 °C	31 %	29 km/h	1.6 mm	Very low 1
21 Aug	21.7 °C	31 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
22 Aug	21.8 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
23 Aug after	19.2 °C	32 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
24 Aug after	9.7 °C	67 %	27 km/h	17.3 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Jul 2018

After · 29 Aug 2018

Before After

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 · 346Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Clearwater County fire last?: It burned between 29 July 2018 and 22 August 2018: 25 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 1,823 hectares (18.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Clearwater County (1,803 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
CWFIS · Interactive map ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned