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Piney fire, May 2021 Piney

Out · last detection 12 May 2021, 18:35 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2021 in Piney, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 65 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,977 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 343th largest in Manitoba since 2016 (of 509 with a page). Number 227 in Canada in 2021, of 304.

Burnt area
1,977ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
65days
8 May 2021 – 11 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2021
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 May 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May11 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

9101112

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
75km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 12 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. Piney where it started
    1,980 ha reached on 9 May
    0.8 %

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)
8 May 14.5 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
9 May 10.8 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
10 May 12.9 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
11 May 17.6 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
12 May 21.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 May 21.7 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 May 20.1 °C 38 % 27 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 3
15 May 21.9 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
16 May 26.4 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
17 May 28.6 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 May 27.0 °C 30 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 May 26.5 °C 46 % 49 km/h 7.7 mm Very low 3
20 May 17.9 °C 88 % 30 km/h 15.1 mm Very low 0
21 May 20.4 °C 74 % 48 km/h 8.8 mm Very low 0
22 May 9.7 °C 90 % 40 km/h 10.1 mm Very low 0
23 May 12.4 °C 78 % 38 km/h 1.4 mm Very low 0
24 May 26.4 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
25 May 20.0 °C 42 % 75 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 3
26 May 7.4 °C 42 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
27 May 13.1 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
28 May 17.7 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
29 May 18.0 °C 38 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
30 May 20.4 °C 38 % 42 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 3
31 May 21.5 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
1 Jun 25.3 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
2 Jun 27.7 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
3 Jun 29.2 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
4 Jun 38.3 °C 16 % 60 km/h 1.4 mm High 30
5 Jun 32.7 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
6 Jun 27.4 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
7 Jun 26.4 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
8 Jun 28.9 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Jun 28.8 °C 51 % 60 km/h 8.1 mm Very low 3
10 Jun 25.0 °C 59 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
11 Jun 23.6 °C 48 % 70 km/h 1.3 mm Low 11
12 Jun 26.0 °C 26 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Jun 26.3 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
14 Jun 26.0 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Jun 26.8 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Jun 30.1 °C 39 % 63 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 12
17 Jun 29.1 °C 20 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jun 20.1 °C 43 % 58 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
19 Jun 20.7 °C 54 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
20 Jun 18.6 °C 38 % 59 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
21 Jun 14.9 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 13
22 Jun 24.1 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
23 Jun 28.4 °C 36 % 58 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 19
24 Jun 26.1 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Jun 24.5 °C 41 % 33 km/h 3.8 mm Very low 5
26 Jun 26.3 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.7 mm Low 9
27 Jun 25.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Jun 25.1 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
29 Jun 28.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 Jun 29.3 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Jul 31.1 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Jul 32.7 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Jul 32.6 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jul 29.6 °C 52 % 42 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 5
5 Jul 26.9 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Jul 16.2 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Jul 19.9 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
8 Jul 23.0 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Jul 28.2 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Jul 30.1 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Jul 32.3 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Jul after 28.7 °C 38 % 58 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2021
After · 18 Jul 2021

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 · 132Every 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 Piney fire last?
It burned between 8 May 2021 and 11 July 2021: 65 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 1,977 hectares (19.8 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Piney (1,980 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

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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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.