Skip to content
worldfires
CA · Canada · →

Leaf Rapids fire, 16 July 2025 Leaf Rapids, Division No. 23, Unorganized

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2025, 09:51 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2025 in Leaf Rapids, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,975 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 344th largest in Manitoba since 2016 (of 509 with a page). Number 408 in Canada in 2025, of 669.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,975ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
16 Jul 2025 – 28 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Jul
2025
Heat detections
181
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
477MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223242628

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
54km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 29 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Leaf Rapids where it started
    1,312 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.9 %
  2. Division No. 23, Unorganized
    634 ha reached on 19 Jul
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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)
16 Jul 22.3 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
17 Jul 23.1 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 13
18 Jul 22.1 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
19 Jul 26.0 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
20 Jul 26.1 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Jul 20.2 °C 58 % 31 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 3
22 Jul 17.8 °C 47 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Low 8
23 Jul 19.7 °C 40 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Jul 22.3 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
25 Jul 23.3 °C 59 % 37 km/h 7.8 mm Very low 1
26 Jul 22.7 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm Low 6
27 Jul 18.3 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
28 Jul 17.0 °C 44 % 51 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 12
29 Jul after 17.6 °C 52 % 44 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2025
After · 4 Aug 2025

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 22 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 1,382 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 453: 30 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,382 µg/m³
Days over the guideline23 days
PM101,397 µg/m³
Optical depth6.52
78910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
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 · 181Every 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 Leaf Rapids fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 July 2025 and 28 July 2025: 13 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,975 hectares (19.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Leaf Rapids (1,312 ha, 0.9 %); Division No. 23, Unorganized (634 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Canada (geoBoundaries). 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

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.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.