Information from the Yukon Wildland Fire Management bulletin (WFM) from June 25, 2017: “Yukon saw its wildfire total reach 50 for the season as two new wildfires were confirmed Sunday. The fires are located in the Klondike and Northern Tutchone regions and are burning in the wilderness zone with no values at immediate risk.”
Eleven new fires due to lightning strikes were discovered over the weekend. The new fires discovered are burning in the wilderness zone. Yukon WFM also reported that the weekend also saw fire activity moderate on the existing priority fires burning in the Klondike region. This allowed fire personnel to make excellent progress on their fire management objectives.
Four large fires are also being closely watched in the wilderness zone of the Old Crow district. Currently the community is not at risk. Precipitation is forecast which could significantly help firefighting efforts. However, lightning accompanying storms continues to be a factor. With active lightning continuing in the northern part of the territory, specifically the Klondike and Northern Tutchone region, regular detection flights are being conducted. The 2017 season has seen 50 fires burning approximately 69,879 hectares (172,674 acres).
NASA’s Terra satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on June 25, 2017. 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 Yukon Fire Management website.