Posted August 22, 2023 at 2:03 p.m. ET
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As fire crews and military personnel battle wildfires in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, NASA mapping data shows where conditions are improving and where they are expected to deteriorate.
Created by NASA and the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Fire Information for the United States/Canada Resource Management System (FIRMS) shows real-time updates of active wildfires burning in Canada and the United States
The latest mapping data, as of Tuesday, continues to show orange flame icons across most areas of western, northwest and central Canada, indicating active fires larger than 404 hectares or approximately four square kilometers. Large forest fires are also burning in Ontario and Quebec.
Southern areas of the Northwest Territories, bordering Alberta, can be seen with deteriorating conditions as red square icons surround the area, indicating active “thermal anomalies.”
SATURDAYthere were visibly fewer and fewer fires in the region compared to today. According to the latest update Territory officials say dry heat is expected to hit the Fort Smith community with temperatures reaching 27°C.
The areas with the most thermal anomalies are near Fort Smith and Hay River in the Northwest Territories, as well as in the forested area of Fort McMurry, Alberta, where one of three wildfires uncontrolled burning in the province, according to the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard.
FIRMS mapping data also shows which areas are at predicted fire risk based on their daily weather conditions, including humidity and wind, and how these will affect fire activity.
According to the data, most of the Northwest Territories south of Yellowknife is blanketed in red, indicating “fast-spreading” or “very difficult to control” fires. The rest of the territory is either orange, meaning the fires are “high intensity,” or yellow, meaning the fires are “moderate to vigorous.”
In Kelowna, the epicenter of British Columbia’s fires, improvements can be seen from Saturday’s data mapping, when a sea of red icons covered both shores of Okanagan Lake. Today, these thermal anomalies are only detected in the outer regions of the lake. Firefighters have made progress in recent days.
Despite this, British Columbia is still not safe as the predicted fire danger shows the province primarily in yellow and orange, with southern British Columbia in red as wildfires have reached Vancouver Island over the weekend.
Since Monday, there are 238 active wildfires in the Northwest Territories and more than 68 percent of the territory’s total population has left. According to British Columbia wildfire mapThere were currently 377 active wildfires as of Tuesday.
With files from Natasha O’Neill and Daniel Otis.
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