How long did the Leaf Rapids fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2025 and 8 August 2025: 22 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 6,408 hectares (64.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Leaf Rapids (6,398 ha, 4.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, 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.

CA · Canada · 2025-07-18 → 2025-08-08

Leaf Rapids fire, 18 July 2025 Leaf Rapids

Out · last detection 8 Aug 2025, 09:45 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2025 in Leaf Rapids, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,408 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 150th largest in Manitoba since 2016 (of 509 with a page). Number 170 in Canada in 2025, of 669.

Burnt area: 6,408ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 18 Jul 2025 – 8 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 18 Jul; 2025
Heat detections: 1,100; in a single hotspot: 314 MW
Danger at start: 12; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 9.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Aug 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul8 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242526272829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

54km/h · peak gust

33%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 11 Aug.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 482 ha in 2021, 523 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

Leaf Rapids where it started

6,398 ha reached on 18 Jul

4.5 %

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)
8 Jul	25.9 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 12
9 Jul	28.3 °C	42 %	54 km/h	4.6 mm	Very low 4
10 Jul	21.1 °C	48 %	49 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 8
11 Jul	21.9 °C	44 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 8
12 Jul	22.1 °C	60 %	31 km/h	2.8 mm	Very low 2
13 Jul	19.3 °C	52 %	35 km/h	2.7 mm	Very low 2
14 Jul	13.5 °C	49 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 3
15 Jul	18.2 °C	38 %	41 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 7
16 Jul	21.6 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 10
17 Jul	22.2 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
18 Jul	21.5 °C	43 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
19 Jul	25.0 °C	34 %	21 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
20 Jul	25.0 °C	36 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
21 Jul	19.9 °C	56 %	31 km/h	1.6 mm	Very low 5
22 Jul	17.3 °C	49 %	46 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 10
23 Jul	18.8 °C	43 %	52 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
24 Jul	21.6 °C	40 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
25 Jul	22.2 °C	61 %	36 km/h	6.7 mm	Very low 1
26 Jul	21.9 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	Low 5
27 Jul	17.7 °C	38 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
28 Jul	16.3 °C	47 %	50 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 12
29 Jul	16.9 °C	48 %	41 km/h	5.1 mm	Very low 1
30 Jul	20.6 °C	42 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
31 Jul	24.0 °C	53 %	23 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 7
1 Aug	28.9 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
2 Aug	27.1 °C	45 %	41 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 14
3 Aug	19.6 °C	38 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
4 Aug	24.7 °C	50 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
5 Aug	27.4 °C	49 %	47 km/h	1.8 mm	Low 9
6 Aug	24.5 °C	63 %	23 km/h	10.2 mm	Very low 0
7 Aug	23.3 °C	50 %	32 km/h	2.2 mm	Very low 1
8 Aug	20.7 °C	50 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
9 Aug after	20.0 °C	51 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 7
10 Aug after	22.5 °C	45 %	23 km/h	0.6 mm	Low 8
11 Aug after	19.9 °C	66 %	46 km/h	1.7 mm	Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Jul 2025

After · 15 Aug 2025

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 22 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 2,153 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 589: 39 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak2,153 µg/m³

Days over the guideline32 days

PM102,176 µg/m³

Optical depth8.22

WHO 15

9101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011

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 · 1,100Every 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?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2025 and 8 August 2025: 22 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 6,408 hectares (64.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Leaf Rapids (6,398 ha, 4.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, 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

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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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.

Where it burned