How long did the Peace River B fire last?

It burned between 22 May 2018 and 21 June 2018: 31 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 1,577 hectares (15.8 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Peace River B (1,604 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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 · 2018-05-22 → 2018-06-21

Peace River B fire, 22 May 2018 Peace River B

Out · last detection 23 May 2018, 21:03 UTC

The fire started on 22 May 2018 in Peace River B, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,577 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 339th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 166 in Canada in 2018, of 212.

Burnt area: 1,577ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 31days; 22 May 2018 – 21 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 22 May; 2018
Heat detections: 10; in a single hotspot: 171 MW
Danger at start: 24; High · FWI index
Energy released: 403MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 May21 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

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

63km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.7 mm on 22 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Peace River B where it started

1,604 ha reached on 23 May

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)
22 May	21.2 °C	30 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
23 May	22.7 °C	36 %	31 km/h	4.1 mm	Very low 3
24 May	21.3 °C	27 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
25 May	17.9 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 15
26 May	14.3 °C	29 %	48 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 18
27 May	15.8 °C	32 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
28 May	13.6 °C	27 %	63 km/h	0.2 mm	High 22
29 May	12.0 °C	38 %	29 km/h	1.8 mm	Very low 4
30 May	10.7 °C	51 %	30 km/h	2.4 mm	Very low 2
31 May	12.0 °C	59 %	37 km/h	5.9 mm	Very low 0
1 Jun	15.4 °C	41 %	36 km/h	2.0 mm	Very low 1
2 Jun	14.1 °C	37 %	38 km/h	2.1 mm	Very low 2
3 Jun	14.2 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.4 mm	Very low 5
4 Jun	7.7 °C	77 %	37 km/h	32.2 mm	Very low 0
5 Jun	10.5 °C	52 %	26 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 0
6 Jun	13.9 °C	38 %	35 km/h	1.7 mm	Very low 0
7 Jun	16.7 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
8 Jun	17.9 °C	30 %	38 km/h	1.0 mm	Very low 4
9 Jun	9.6 °C	61 %	26 km/h	5.3 mm	Very low 0
10 Jun	15.4 °C	38 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 1
11 Jun	15.0 °C	36 %	57 km/h	0.6 mm	Very low 5
12 Jun	14.8 °C	42 %	44 km/h	1.0 mm	Very low 4
13 Jun	11.5 °C	66 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
14 Jun	14.7 °C	62 %	29 km/h	4.8 mm	Very low 0
15 Jun	17.7 °C	40 %	31 km/h	3.7 mm	Very low 0
16 Jun	24.7 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 5
17 Jun	27.2 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 12
18 Jun	29.5 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
19 Jun	30.6 °C	20 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
20 Jun	29.5 °C	22 %	23 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 18
21 Jun	28.3 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 16
22 Jun after	19.1 °C	58 %	38 km/h	10.7 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 May 2018

After · 28 Jun 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 · 10Every 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 Peace River B fire last?: It burned between 22 May 2018 and 21 June 2018: 31 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 1,577 hectares (15.8 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Peace River B (1,604 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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

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