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CA · Canada · –

Region 5, Unorganized fire, 9 July 2017 Region 5, Unorganized

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2017, 20:33 UTC

The fire started on 9 July 2017 in Region 5, Unorganized, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 4,063 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 186th largest in Northwest Territories since 2016 (of 358 with a page). Number 103 in Canada in 2017, of 242.

Burnt area
4,063ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
38days
9 Jul 2017 – 15 Aug 2017
Census subdivisions hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Jul
2017
Heat detections
443
in a single hotspot: 118 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
221MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jul15 Aug
15 Aug 2017

How it evolved, day by day

9 Jul 2017 · 7 MW · 1 10 Jul 2017 · 42 MW · 6 11 Jul 2017 · 425 MW · 22 12 Jul 2017 · 39 MW · 19 13 Jul 2017 · 114 MW · 8 14 Jul 2017 · 42 MW · 7 15 Jul 2017 · 720 MW · 45 16 Jul 2017 · 8 MW · 2 19 Jul 2017 · 120 MW · 9 20 Jul 2017 · 353 MW · 23 21 Jul 2017 · 126 MW · 15 22 Jul 2017 · 187 MW · 12 23 Jul 2017 · 138 MW · 26 24 Jul 2017 · 271 MW · 21 25 Jul 2017 · 426 MW · 24 26 Jul 2017 · 205 MW · 32 2 Aug 2017 · 14 MW · 3 9 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 1 11 Aug 2017 · 162 MW · 10 12 Aug 2017 · 213 MW · 38 13 Aug 2017 · 259 MW · 28 14 Aug 2017 · 541 MW · 42 15 Aug 2017 · 677 MW · 49
9 Jul 15 Jul 21 Jul 26 Jul 13 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
53km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 19 Aug.

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 2.6% of the area of London (41 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
    4,027 ha reached on 9 Jul
    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)
9 Jul 27.9 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
10 Jul 28.9 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Jul 27.0 °C 37 % 29 km/h 2.4 mm High 22
12 Jul 23.1 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 5
13 Jul 21.8 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
14 Jul 20.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Jul 25.9 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
16 Jul 22.6 °C 50 % 42 km/h 4.8 mm Moderate 17
17 Jul 12.6 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 4
18 Jul 18.2 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 12
19 Jul 16.0 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
20 Jul 21.5 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Jul 22.7 °C 31 % 44 km/h 1.5 mm High 22
22 Jul 26.6 °C 35 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 15
23 Jul 19.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
24 Jul 23.4 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Jul 24.5 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Jul 28.2 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Jul 29.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
28 Jul 18.0 °C 72 % 46 km/h 1.5 mm Low 8
29 Jul 14.7 °C 50 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
30 Jul 18.5 °C 51 % 30 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 14
31 Jul 22.7 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Aug 25.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Aug 26.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Aug 27.4 °C 28 % 29 km/h 2.1 mm High 28
4 Aug 26.7 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
5 Aug 26.1 °C 32 % 46 km/h 2.9 mm High 34
6 Aug 16.5 °C 51 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
7 Aug 20.1 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
8 Aug 25.4 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
9 Aug 27.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Aug 28.3 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Aug 31.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 30.6 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Aug 30.5 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Aug 29.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Aug 23.8 °C 48 % 53 km/h 9.7 mm High 29
16 Aug after 22.6 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
17 Aug after 23.7 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
18 Aug after 24.6 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 16
19 Aug after 18.2 °C 51 % 41 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 14

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.6, a minimum humidity of 30% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.

FWI at the start 16.6
Minimum humidity 30 %
Days without rain 3
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Region 5, Unorganized fire, July 2023
3,572 ha 26 days FWI 16.7 Min. humidity 28 % 117 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.6 mm on 1 Aug.

What happened to them

29 days
median duration
7,597 ha
median area
33 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 21 of 21 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 4,063 ha against a median of 7,597 ha. It lasted 38 days, against 29 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 mm.

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

1.3 mmfirst rain
19 Aug4 days after it ended
53km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Aug, and on 19 Aug 1.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 21, with a median of 3.5 mm.

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 2016.
  • 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 · 2 Jul 2017
After · 22 Aug 2017

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 · 443Every 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 9 July 2017 to 15 August 2017 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 July 2017 to 15 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 4,063 hectares (40.6 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 (4,027 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 21. Their median duration was 29 days and their median area 7,597 ha; 33 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 mm.

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 11 July 2017 to 15 August 2017. 443 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.