How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?

It burned between 19 September 2022 and 12 October 2022: 24 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 2,168 hectares (21.7 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Mackenzie County (2,172 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 21.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 73 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.

CA · Canada · 2022-09-19 → 2022-10-12

Mackenzie County fire, September 2022 Mackenzie County

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2022, 09:57 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2022 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,168 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 163th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 119 in Canada in 2022, of 197.

Burnt area: 2,168ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 24days; 19 Sept 2022 – 12 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 19 Sept; 2022
Heat detections: 318; in a single hotspot: 408 MW
Danger at start: 0; Very low · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Oct 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2122232427282456789101213

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

The weather it burned in

21°high

73km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2021.

2 ha Mackenzie County fire, July 2021 2,534 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Mackenzie County where it started

2,172 ha reached on 21 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)
19 Sept	8.3 °C	68 %	39 km/h	2.2 mm	Very low 0
20 Sept	12.5 °C	42 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
21 Sept	15.8 °C	44 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
22 Sept	20.1 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
23 Sept	12.4 °C	34 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
24 Sept	11.8 °C	41 %	59 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 13
25 Sept	10.6 °C	49 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
26 Sept	15.0 °C	42 %	25 km/h	2.0 mm	Very low 2
27 Sept	21.0 °C	47 %	32 km/h	0.9 mm	Very low 5
28 Sept	20.5 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 10
29 Sept	7.6 °C	54 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 8
30 Sept	14.7 °C	63 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
1 Oct	17.6 °C	57 %	39 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 9
2 Oct	13.2 °C	35 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
3 Oct	12.3 °C	36 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
4 Oct	11.0 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
5 Oct	6.3 °C	52 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
6 Oct	11.1 °C	62 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
7 Oct	13.1 °C	52 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
8 Oct	11.5 °C	58 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
9 Oct	15.3 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
10 Oct	9.3 °C	40 %	48 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 9
11 Oct	3.5 °C	42 %	73 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
12 Oct	2.9 °C	30 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
13 Oct after	6.3 °C	47 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
14 Oct after	5.9 °C	53 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 12
15 Oct after	-2.3 °C	58 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
16 Oct after	4.9 °C	47 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
17 Oct after	13.0 °C	41 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
18 Oct after	16.1 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
19 Oct after	11.4 °C	56 %	45 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 13
20 Oct after	8.9 °C	50 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
21 Oct after	1.4 °C	83 %	13 km/h	2.1 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Sept 2022

After · 19 Oct 2022

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 10 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 782 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 125: 8.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak782 µg/m³

Days over the guideline10 days

PM101,118 µg/m³

Optical depth0.60

WHO 15

1718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 318Every 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

All fires in Canada ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?: It burned between 19 September 2022 and 12 October 2022: 24 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 2,168 hectares (21.7 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Mackenzie County (2,172 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 21.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 73 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

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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What really happened?

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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