Skip to content
worldfires
CA · Canada · →

Mackenzie County fire, 17 September 2017 Mackenzie County

Out · last measured on 17 Sept 2017

The fire started on 17 September 2017 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,538 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 191th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 192 in Canada in 2017, of 242.

Burnt area
1,538ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
1day
17 Sept 2017 – 17 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Sept
2017
Heat detections
78
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept17 Sept

The weather it burned in

19°high
28km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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

  1. Mackenzie County where it started
    1,534 ha reached on 24 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
17 Sept 18.8 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 Sept after 16.7 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
19 Sept after 16.2 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Sept after 15.5 °C 39 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Sept after 13.0 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Sept after 13.5 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Sept after 15.8 °C 48 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Sept after 18.4 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Sept after 20.0 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Sept after 16.9 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Sept after 15.6 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2017
After · 24 Sept 2017

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 · 78Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Canada ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?
It burned between 17 September 2017 and 17 September 2017: 1 day, 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 1,538 hectares (15.4 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Mackenzie County (1,534 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 18.8 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
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

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

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.