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Mackenzie County fire, 27 May 2019 Mackenzie County

Out · last detection 11 Jul 2019, 21:42 UTC

The fire started on 27 May 2019 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 46 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 64,711 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 16th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 6 in Canada in 2019, of 97.

Burnt area
64,711ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
46days
27 May 2019 – 11 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 May
2019
Heat detections
5,381
in a single hotspot: 550 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
109.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 May11 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

282930311239101112131415161718192011

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
56km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.7 mm on 12 Jul.

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
    66,418 ha reached on 28 May
    0.8 %

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)
27 May 26.9 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 May 32.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 May 24.8 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
30 May 13.2 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
31 May 18.0 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Jun 17.2 °C 57 % 41 km/h 17.8 mm Very low 0
2 Jun 14.8 °C 48 % 56 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 4
3 Jun 14.4 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 4
4 Jun 10.1 °C 51 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
5 Jun 9.7 °C 64 % 35 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 2
6 Jun 11.9 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
7 Jun 6.2 °C 67 % 33 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 2
8 Jun 12.0 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
9 Jun 17.5 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
10 Jun 17.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
11 Jun 22.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
12 Jun 25.4 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Jun 23.8 °C 35 % 31 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 5
14 Jun 20.2 °C 50 % 31 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 2
15 Jun 26.1 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
16 Jun 28.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Jun 28.0 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Jun 23.5 °C 47 % 39 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 5
19 Jun 16.3 °C 51 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
20 Jun 19.2 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
21 Jun 12.2 °C 86 % 31 km/h 16.7 mm Very low 0
22 Jun 19.6 °C 50 % 26 km/h 8.2 mm Very low 0
23 Jun 21.2 °C 49 % 34 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 0
24 Jun 20.0 °C 64 % 31 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 0
25 Jun 20.2 °C 61 % 31 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 0
26 Jun 23.5 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm Low 6
27 Jun 16.5 °C 50 % 38 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 1
28 Jun 23.0 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 3
29 Jun 22.1 °C 34 % 41 km/h 9.0 mm Very low 1
30 Jun 18.4 °C 56 % 36 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 0
1 Jul 10.4 °C 60 % 50 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 0
2 Jul 19.3 °C 34 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
3 Jul 17.7 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
4 Jul 17.1 °C 61 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
5 Jul 23.0 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
6 Jul 22.5 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.7 mm Low 6
7 Jul 16.4 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
8 Jul 13.4 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 5
9 Jul 16.8 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
10 Jul 21.0 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Low 10
11 Jul 25.9 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Jul after 16.7 °C 71 % 37 km/h 6.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 May 2019
After · 18 Jul 2019

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 · 5,381Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?
It burned between 27 May 2019 and 11 July 2019: 46 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 64,711 hectares (647.1 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Mackenzie County (66,418 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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

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.