How long did the Leaf Rapids fire last?

It burned between 12 June 2023 and 1 July 2023: 20 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 18,720 hectares (187.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire entered 2 census subdivisions: Leaf Rapids (14,797 ha, 10 %); Division No. 23, Unorganized (3,819 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, 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 · 2023-06-12 → 2023-07-01

Leaf Rapids fire, June 2023 Leaf Rapids, Division No. 23, Unorganized

Out · last detection 1 Jul 2023, 19:55 UTC

The fire started on 12 June 2023 in Leaf Rapids, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 18,720 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 census subdivisions.

It is the 40th largest in Manitoba since 2016 (of 509 with a page). Number 101 in Canada in 2023, of 489.

Burnt area: 18,720ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 20days; 12 Jun 2023 – 1 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 12 Jun; 2023
Heat detections: 1,164; in a single hotspot: 314 MW
Danger at start: 8; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 13.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Jul 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jun1 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192324252627301

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

58km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.4 mm on 2 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Leaf Rapids where it started

14,797 ha reached on 15 Jun

10 %
Division No. 23, Unorganized

3,819 ha reached on 16 Jun

0.0 %

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)
12 Jun	19.7 °C	55 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 8
13 Jun	12.9 °C	53 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
14 Jun	16.4 °C	42 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
15 Jun	21.9 °C	41 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 11
16 Jun	21.4 °C	35 %	58 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 15
17 Jun	25.8 °C	33 %	48 km/h	1.5 mm	Low 9
18 Jun	23.6 °C	47 %	16 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 8
19 Jun	19.1 °C	65 %	52 km/h	8.5 mm	Very low 0
20 Jun	23.7 °C	50 %	29 km/h	3.0 mm	Very low 1
21 Jun	25.3 °C	27 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
22 Jun	15.6 °C	58 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 8
23 Jun	21.8 °C	36 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
24 Jun	28.2 °C	25 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
25 Jun	20.5 °C	33 %	50 km/h	3.4 mm	Very low 4
26 Jun	21.1 °C	31 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
27 Jun	18.1 °C	58 %	30 km/h	9.3 mm	Very low 0
28 Jun	21.8 °C	54 %	35 km/h	5.9 mm	Very low 0
29 Jun	29.2 °C	19 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
30 Jun	30.4 °C	33 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
1 Jul	28.0 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 13
2 Jul after	25.5 °C	51 %	52 km/h	22.4 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Jun 2023

After · 8 Jul 2023

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 29 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 313 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 154: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak313 µg/m³

Days over the guideline17 days

PM10448 µg/m³

Optical depth2.87

WHO 15

1011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234

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 · 1,164Every 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 Leaf Rapids fire last?: It burned between 12 June 2023 and 1 July 2023: 20 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 18,720 hectares (187.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire entered 2 census subdivisions: Leaf Rapids (14,797 ha, 10 %); Division No. 23, Unorganized (3,819 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

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