How long did the Columbia-Shuswap E fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 July 2021 to 16 August 2021 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 July 2021 to 15 August 2021.

How much area did it burn?

The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 2,421 hectares (24.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire entered 2 census subdivisions: Columbia-Shuswap E (2,398 ha, 1.5 %); Sicamous (6 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

CA · Canada · 2021-07-20 → 2021-08-16

Columbia-Shuswap E fire, July 2021 Columbia-Shuswap E, Sicamous

Out · last detection 16 Aug 2021, 10:30 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2021 in Columbia-Shuswap E, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,421 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 census subdivisions.

It is the 272th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 216 in Canada in 2021, of 304.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Columbia-Shuswap F · 2021 North Okanagan F · 2018 North Okanagan F · 2021 Columbia-Shuswap F · 2021

Burnt area: 2,421ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 28days; 20 Jul 2021 – 16 Aug 2021
Census subdivisions hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 20 Jul; 2021
Heat detections: 465; in a single hotspot: 462 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 374MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul16 Aug

Play back 16 Aug 2021

How it evolved, day by day

20 Jul 24 Jul 28 Jul 5 Aug 11 Aug 15 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

60km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.2 mm on 16 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 1.5% of the area of London (24 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

Columbia-Shuswap E where it started

2,398 ha reached on 20 Jul

1.5 %
Sicamous

6 ha reached on 20 Jul

0.4 %

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)
20 Jul	22.7 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
21 Jul	19.8 °C	20 %	52 km/h	0.1 mm	High 36
22 Jul	17.3 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
23 Jul	19.9 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
24 Jul	24.2 °C	22 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
25 Jul	24.1 °C	24 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
26 Jul	24.9 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
27 Jul	26.0 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
28 Jul	26.3 °C	21 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
29 Jul	28.8 °C	13 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
30 Jul	29.7 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
31 Jul	30.7 °C	14 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
1 Aug	22.3 °C	35 %	42 km/h	2.3 mm	Low 9
2 Aug	23.1 °C	44 %	20 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 9
3 Aug	25.7 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
4 Aug	26.6 °C	20 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
5 Aug	25.5 °C	23 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Aug	18.0 °C	37 %	44 km/h	0.4 mm	High 25
7 Aug	15.9 °C	38 %	44 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 15
8 Aug	17.9 °C	47 %	35 km/h	1.0 mm	Low 10
9 Aug	19.8 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
10 Aug	20.3 °C	43 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
11 Aug	23.2 °C	16 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
12 Aug	23.0 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Aug	27.8 °C	18 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Aug	27.2 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
15 Aug	25.0 °C	23 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
16 Aug	17.7 °C	44 %	32 km/h	23.2 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Jul 2021

After · 23 Aug 2021

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 · 465Every 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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Canada ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Columbia-Shuswap E fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 July 2021 to 16 August 2021 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 July 2021 to 15 August 2021.
How much area did it burn?: The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 2,421 hectares (24.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire entered 2 census subdivisions: Columbia-Shuswap E (2,398 ha, 1.5 %); Sicamous (6 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
CWFIS · Interactive map ↗

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

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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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How we know this

Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 July 2021 to 15 August 2021. 465 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.

Where it burned