Canada is reeling from an early fire season this year as dozens of fires ravage at least three provinces of the country. All of the following reports are as of July 2, 2015.
The Northwest Territories fire website reports the following:
In the North Slave area there have been a total of 18 fires with 14 still active and 22,843 hectares affected. In South Slave, there have been a total of 54 fires, and 36 are still active with 50,381 hectares affected. In Sahtu there have been 17 fires with 16 still active, affecting 17,492 hectares. In Deh Cho there have been 78 fires. Sixty one fires are still active and 107,463 hectares have been affected. In Inuvik there have been 6 fires and two are still active. The area affected is 1,260 hectares. (Each hectares equals 2.47 acres)
In Alberta, the situation report is as follows:
There are a total of 19 new wildfires in the last 24 hours. Nine are out of control, four are being held and six were extinguished. Currently there are 115 fires overall with 46 out of control, 18 being held and 51 under control. There have also been 30 prescribed burns in the area for a total affected area of 1,982.37 hectares.
The British Columbia Wildfire Service reports the following for their area:
There were 37 new lightning caused fires and 5 new human caused fires in the region. Total fires to date are 737 for a total affected area of 82,676 hectares.
This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on July 1, 2015. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner