Wildfires continue to be a problem in Canada. Currently in the central region, including the Northern Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, numerous fires were spotted by the Aqua satellite on this image captured on August 12, 2013.
In the past week, 508 new fires started in Canada, burning over half a million acres (208,308 ha). Most of the past week's fires occurred from Manitoba westward, particularly in British Columbia, while Saskatchewan accounted for roughly half of the area burned. Seasonal fire occurrence remains below average, but the area burned to date is nearly double the 10-year average.
Fire danger is high to extreme in much of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. In the Northwest Territories, indexes have risen from last week after several hot and dry days. Elevated levels are also found in Nova Scotia, northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, while remaining regions have low fire danger. In Alberta, the region of highest fire danger has moved from the south last week to the north this week.
Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System website.