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CA · Canada · –

Region 5, Unorganized fire, 23 June 2016 Region 5, Unorganized

Out · last detection 18 Jul 2016, 10:08 UTC

The fire started on 23 June 2016 in Region 5, Unorganized, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 5,768 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 154th largest in Northwest Territories since 2016 (of 358 with a page). Number 24 in Canada in 2016, of 88.

Burnt area
5,768ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
26days
23 Jun 2016 – 18 Jul 2016
Census subdivisions hit
1
municipalities
Started on
23 Jun
2016
Heat detections
507
in a single hotspot: 470 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
752MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jun18 Jul
18 Jul 2016

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jun 2016 · 257 MW · 8 25 Jun 2016 · 70 MW · 16 28 Jun 2016 · 3 MW · 1 29 Jun 2016 · 727 MW · 21 30 Jun 2016 · 736 MW · 59 1 Jul 2016 · 2,865 MW · 56 2 Jul 2016 · 4,922 MW · 140 3 Jul 2016 · 687 MW · 98 4 Jul 2016 · 776 MW · 69 5 Jul 2016 · 39 MW · 6 6 Jul 2016 · 1 MW · 1 15 Jul 2016 · 2 MW · 1 16 Jul 2016 · 109 MW · 15 17 Jul 2016 · 80 MW · 10 18 Jul 2016 · 7 MW · 6
24 Jun 29 Jun 2 Jul 5 Jul 16 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
46km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.0 mm on 19 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.6% of the area of London (58 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

  1. Region 5, Unorganized where it started
    5,666 ha reached on 24 Jun
    0.0 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
23 Jun 15.0 °C 67 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
24 Jun 17.8 °C 55 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
25 Jun 22.5 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
26 Jun 20.3 °C 52 % 25 km/h 3.2 mm Low 8
27 Jun 22.5 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 1
28 Jun 18.8 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
29 Jun 23.3 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
30 Jun 23.6 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Jul 24.4 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Jul 25.3 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Jul 23.0 °C 44 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
4 Jul 25.7 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Jul 19.5 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Jul 14.8 °C 53 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
7 Jul 14.9 °C 56 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Jul 15.2 °C 64 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
9 Jul 16.6 °C 61 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
10 Jul 20.3 °C 44 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Jul 18.9 °C 60 % 23 km/h 8.1 mm Very low 0
12 Jul 18.6 °C 51 % 38 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 0
13 Jul 17.6 °C 56 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 2
14 Jul 22.5 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
15 Jul 23.6 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Jul 17.0 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Jul 20.0 °C 45 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
18 Jul 21.6 °C 54 % 37 km/h 5.8 mm Moderate 17
19 Jul after 18.0 °C 69 % 26 km/h 8.0 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 8.1, a minimum humidity of 67% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 3.

FWI at the start 8.1
Minimum humidity 67 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Region 5, Unorganized fire, July 2017
3,523 ha 20 days FWI 1.2 Min. humidity 65 % 120 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 17 Aug.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 3. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

8.0 mmfirst rain
19 Julthe day after it ended
46km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Jul, and on 19 Jul 8.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2017.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jun 2016
After · 25 Jul 2016

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 · 507Every 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 Region 5, Unorganized fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 June 2016 to 18 July 2016 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 June 2016 to 17 July 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 5,768 hectares (57.7 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Region 5, Unorganized (5,666 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 25.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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?

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 23 June 2016 to 17 July 2016. 507 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 2015, 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.