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Peace River E fire, September 2023 Peace River E

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2023, 10:54 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2023 in Peace River E, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,194 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 403th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 455 in Canada in 2023, of 489.

Burnt area
1,194ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
30days
13 Sept 2023 – 12 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Sept
2023
Heat detections
165
in a single hotspot: 234 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

91213

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
69km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.6 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Peace River E where it started
    1,200 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
13 Sept 15.8 °C 26 % 63 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
14 Sept 19.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Sept 23.6 °C 12 % 69 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Sept 19.2 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Sept 16.6 °C 34 % 66 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
18 Sept 13.1 °C 34 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Sept 9.8 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
20 Sept 15.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Sept 18.0 °C 34 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Sept 22.2 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept 16.1 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Sept 12.8 °C 36 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Sept 8.8 °C 52 % 24 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 4
26 Sept 15.8 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
27 Sept 12.4 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
28 Sept 8.8 °C 67 % 28 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 2
29 Sept 8.4 °C 81 % 18 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 0
30 Sept 10.2 °C 53 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
1 Oct 10.2 °C 54 % 52 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 1
2 Oct 12.8 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 5
3 Oct 10.0 °C 49 % 54 km/h 0.8 mm Low 6
4 Oct 11.4 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
5 Oct 8.1 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Oct 16.8 °C 42 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
7 Oct 22.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Oct 20.0 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Oct 16.5 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Oct 12.2 °C 52 % 17 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 3
11 Oct 12.6 °C 48 % 18 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 3
12 Oct 14.0 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
13 Oct after 9.8 °C 62 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
14 Oct after 10.6 °C 59 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
15 Oct after 13.1 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
16 Oct after 6.5 °C 73 % 18 km/h 7.6 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2023
After · 19 Oct 2023

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 11 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 806 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 448: 30 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak806 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM101,151 µg/m³
Optical depth3.68
1112131415161718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415
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 · 165Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Peace River E fire last?
It burned between 13 September 2023 and 12 October 2023: 30 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 1,194 hectares (11.9 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Peace River E (1,200 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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

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
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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.

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.