NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this real-color imagery of the fires plaguing the province of Saskatchewan on July 09, 2015. As of Friday, July 10, there are 119 active fires in the province; 57 are greater than 100 hectares. There have been 604 wildfires so far this season compared to 220 in 2014 which is close to three times as many as in all of 2014.
The fire season this year has been devastating in Canada and there is no end in sight. A long-lasting, record-smashing heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada continues to fuel hundreds of wildfires in three Canadian provinces. Large sections of of Canada have been under a persistent high pressure system that has sent temperatures rocketing to record highs, causing the soil to dry out even further and prime the region for fast-spreading wildfires usually caused by lightning strikes which come from thunderstorms brought on by the heat. Alberta and Saskatchewan were at “extreme” levels of wildfire preparedness on Monday, July 6, which means there is an extremely high fire danger, availability of fuels for any fires to consume, and a lack of firefighting resources on hand.
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