Firefighters in Alberta are grateful for and welcomed in the same weather than the North Atlantic residents of the United States have been dealing with and dreading for weeks. Cool, damp weather finally moved in across Alberta during the Victoria Day long-weekend ushering in improved conditions which have allowed some re-entry to oilsands facilities.
On Sunday, the blaze was estimated to be 522,894 hectares (2019 sq. miles) on the Alberta side, and 2,496 hectares (9.6 sq. miles) across the border into Saskatchewan. There was no change to the size of the fire which is welcome news in that the fire has not grown.
The mandatory evacuation of Fort McMurray and Anzac remains in place. Officials have stated that residents are expected to be able to start returning home on June 1 on a voluntary, phased basis.
NASA’s Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image of the Fort McMurray fire complex in Alberta, Canada with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on May 23, 2016. Smoke still rises in huge columns above the fires and 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