How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?

It burned between 5 August 2017 and 22 August 2017: 18 days, according to the dates recorded by Canada’s CWFIS and the heat detections seen by satellite.

How much area did it burn?

The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 4,711 hectares (47.1 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Mackenzie County (4,635 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the official burnt perimeter of Canada’s CWFIS (NBAC, Natural Resources Canada) or, for the current season and until NBAC publishes it, the one rebuilt by GWIS (Copernicus); from NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots; and from the administrative boundaries of Canada. It is not an official report.

CA · Canada · 2017-08-05 → 2017-08-22

Mackenzie County fire, 5 August 2017 Mackenzie County

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2017, 21:22 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2017 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 4,711 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 110th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 88 in Canada in 2017, of 242.

Burnt area: 4,711ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 18days; 5 Aug 2017 – 22 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 5 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 965; in a single hotspot: 768 MW
Danger at start: 10; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 19.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Aug 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

5910111213141516171820212223

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high

66km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Mackenzie County where it started

4,635 ha reached on 4 Aug

0.1 %

Burnt area inside each census subdivision, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
4 Aug	25.3 °C	41 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 10
5 Aug	27.0 °C	33 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
6 Aug	17.7 °C	65 %	33 km/h	7.6 mm	Very low 0
7 Aug	22.3 °C	39 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
8 Aug	27.5 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
9 Aug	28.4 °C	31 %	18 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 17
10 Aug	29.8 °C	28 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
11 Aug	31.7 °C	24 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
12 Aug	30.1 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Aug	30.9 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
14 Aug	22.4 °C	56 %	27 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 15
15 Aug	21.1 °C	41 %	37 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 15
16 Aug	24.9 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
17 Aug	26.0 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
18 Aug	24.7 °C	26 %	51 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
19 Aug	17.6 °C	44 %	66 km/h	2.7 mm	Low 7
20 Aug	20.8 °C	30 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
21 Aug	23.2 °C	25 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 Aug	24.4 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
23 Aug after	27.2 °C	47 %	38 km/h	0.5 mm	High 22
24 Aug after	22.4 °C	55 %	29 km/h	8.1 mm	Very low 2
25 Aug after	15.5 °C	86 %	62 km/h	41.4 mm	Very low 0
26 Aug after	23.0 °C	41 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
27 Aug after	22.1 °C	30 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
28 Aug after	21.6 °C	26 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
29 Aug after	22.0 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
30 Aug after	25.2 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
31 Aug after	23.6 °C	30 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
1 Sept after	22.7 °C	27 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
2 Sept after	19.3 °C	46 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
3 Sept after	20.0 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
4 Sept after	21.6 °C	31 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
5 Sept after	27.2 °C	29 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
6 Sept after	28.8 °C	33 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 29 Jul 2017

After · 29 Aug 2017

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 965Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

11,184 haMackenzie County30 June 2023 · 102 days · 17 km away

All fires in Canada ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?: It burned between 5 August 2017 and 22 August 2017: 18 days, according to the dates recorded by Canada’s CWFIS and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?: The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 4,711 hectares (47.1 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Mackenzie County (4,635 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the official burnt perimeter of Canada’s CWFIS (NBAC, Natural Resources Canada) or, for the current season and until NBAC publishes it, the one rebuilt by GWIS (Copernicus); from NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots; and from the administrative boundaries of Canada. It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
CWFIS · Interactive map ↗

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official: it comes from the National Burned Area Composite (NBAC) of the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS), Natural Resources Canada, which maps it on satellite imagery and publishes it under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Until NBAC publishes the current season, this year’s fires carry the perimeter rebuilt from heat detections by GWIS (Copernicus, CC BY 4.0), which is approximate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Census subdivision boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per census subdivision is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.

Where it burned