How long did the Peace River D fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 August 2022 to 20 October 2022 (51 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2022 to 18 October 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 6,499 hectares (65.0 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Peace River D (6,501 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 · 2022-08-31 → 2022-10-20

Peace River D fire, August 2022 Peace River D

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2022, 21:16 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2022 in Peace River D, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 51 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 6,499 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 149th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 48 in Canada in 2022, of 197.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Peace River D · 2021 Peace River D · 2023 Peace River D · 2025 Peace River D · 2023

Burnt area: 6,499ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 51days; 31 Aug 2022 – 20 Oct 2022
Census subdivisions hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 31 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 909; in a single hotspot: 391 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 860MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug20 Oct

Play back 19 Oct 2022

How it evolved, day by day

1 Sept 3 Sept 4 Sept 7 Sept 11 Sept 14 Sept 13 Oct 19 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

28°high

74km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 876 ha in 2021.

876 ha Peace River D fire, August 2021 2,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 4.1% of the area of London (65 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

Peace River D where it started

6,501 ha reached on 1 Sept

0.6 %

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)
31 Aug	26.5 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
1 Sept	21.6 °C	25 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
2 Sept	28.3 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 Sept	26.7 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
4 Sept	17.9 °C	44 %	56 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 21
5 Sept	14.5 °C	40 %	74 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
6 Sept	16.3 °C	36 %	38 km/h	1.4 mm	Low 9
7 Sept	14.6 °C	37 %	66 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
8 Sept	14.9 °C	38 %	44 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 16
9 Sept	18.1 °C	36 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
10 Sept	24.5 °C	22 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
11 Sept	23.2 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
12 Sept	19.2 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
13 Sept	20.5 °C	27 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
14 Sept	22.3 °C	32 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
15 Sept	19.3 °C	35 %	34 km/h	0.3 mm	High 22
16 Sept	10.6 °C	72 %	26 km/h	15.2 mm	Very low 0
17 Sept	5.8 °C	99 %	39 km/h	18.7 mm	Very low 0
18 Sept	12.3 °C	54 %	51 km/h	0.8 mm	Very low 0
19 Sept	11.7 °C	47 %	36 km/h	0.8 mm	Very low 1
20 Sept	17.1 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
21 Sept	21.1 °C	30 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
22 Sept	20.8 °C	27 %	50 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
23 Sept	13.2 °C	35 %	67 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
24 Sept	15.4 °C	36 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
25 Sept	18.5 °C	46 %	59 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
26 Sept	23.2 °C	43 %	22 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 11
27 Sept	24.4 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
28 Sept	21.5 °C	37 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
29 Sept	15.7 °C	68 %	21 km/h	2.4 mm	Very low 1
30 Sept	19.2 °C	44 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
1 Oct	22.0 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
2 Oct	20.3 °C	37 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
3 Oct	19.4 °C	37 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
4 Oct	16.1 °C	42 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
5 Oct	11.0 °C	62 %	22 km/h	0.9 mm	Very low 5
6 Oct	18.8 °C	45 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
7 Oct	20.8 °C	33 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
8 Oct	18.9 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
9 Oct	19.3 °C	33 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
10 Oct	13.8 °C	46 %	73 km/h	1.8 mm	Low 8
11 Oct	11.1 °C	42 %	65 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 11
12 Oct	13.1 °C	45 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
13 Oct	18.9 °C	35 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
14 Oct	16.5 °C	38 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
15 Oct	17.3 °C	43 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
16 Oct	21.8 °C	29 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
17 Oct	22.1 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Oct	19.6 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
19 Oct	14.9 °C	47 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 Oct	9.6 °C	39 %	56 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 21
21 Oct after	5.3 °C	51 %	41 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Aug 2022

After · 27 Oct 2022

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 4 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 102 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak102 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM10146 µg/m³

Optical depth0.61

WHO 15

293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415161718192021

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 · 909Every 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 D fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 August 2022 to 20 October 2022 (51 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2022 to 18 October 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 6,499 hectares (65.0 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Peace River D (6,501 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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

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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What really happened?

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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.

How we know this

Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 August 2022 to 18 October 2022. 909 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