How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?

It burned between 13 July 2023 and 2 September 2023: 52 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 3,254 hectares (32.5 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Mackenzie County (3,331 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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 · 2023-07-13 → 2023-09-02

Mackenzie County fire, 13 July 2023 Mackenzie County

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2023, 10:22 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2023 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 52 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,254 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 141th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 330 in Canada in 2023, of 489.

Burnt area: 3,254ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 52days; 13 Jul 2023 – 2 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 13 Jul; 2023
Heat detections: 750; in a single hotspot: 332 MW
Danger at start: 9; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 14.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 2 Sept 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

131415161719212223242122282

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

70km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 3 Sept.

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

3,331 ha reached on 13 Jul

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)
13 Jul	27.7 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 9
14 Jul	27.0 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
15 Jul	25.2 °C	30 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
16 Jul	26.4 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
17 Jul	20.8 °C	63 %	36 km/h	6.2 mm	Very low 1
18 Jul	21.5 °C	50 %	23 km/h	3.0 mm	Very low 1
19 Jul	23.4 °C	43 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
20 Jul	27.8 °C	29 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
21 Jul	28.5 °C	28 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
22 Jul	25.5 °C	44 %	28 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 10
23 Jul	26.3 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
24 Jul	23.3 °C	36 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
25 Jul	16.0 °C	80 %	35 km/h	33.1 mm	Very low 0
26 Jul	18.4 °C	63 %	46 km/h	3.4 mm	Very low 0
27 Jul	21.0 °C	51 %	21 km/h	0.7 mm	Very low 1
28 Jul	24.6 °C	33 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
29 Jul	25.6 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
30 Jul	25.0 °C	41 %	32 km/h	0.6 mm	Low 10
31 Jul	20.9 °C	50 %	31 km/h	4.6 mm	Very low 1
1 Aug	19.8 °C	54 %	32 km/h	1.3 mm	Very low 2
2 Aug	22.1 °C	37 %	16 km/h	0.8 mm	Very low 4
3 Aug	21.7 °C	40 %	20 km/h	1.1 mm	Very low 4
4 Aug	23.6 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
5 Aug	26.5 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 12
6 Aug	26.3 °C	36 %	27 km/h	1.6 mm	Low 7
7 Aug	24.8 °C	38 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 13
8 Aug	22.4 °C	45 %	45 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 17
9 Aug	19.0 °C	71 %	32 km/h	8.9 mm	Very low 0
10 Aug	20.0 °C	61 %	23 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 0
11 Aug	16.3 °C	83 %	21 km/h	9.1 mm	Very low 0
12 Aug	22.5 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 1
13 Aug	25.7 °C	30 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
14 Aug	21.7 °C	31 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
15 Aug	18.4 °C	46 %	42 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 6
16 Aug	22.3 °C	33 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
17 Aug	18.9 °C	32 %	46 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 14
18 Aug	13.8 °C	52 %	36 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 6
19 Aug	20.8 °C	43 %	32 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 9
20 Aug	23.5 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
21 Aug	25.1 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 16
22 Aug	24.5 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
23 Aug	22.5 °C	43 %	20 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 15
24 Aug	24.5 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
25 Aug	27.9 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
26 Aug	24.9 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
27 Aug	29.4 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
28 Aug	31.8 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 Aug	27.7 °C	38 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
30 Aug	25.4 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
31 Aug	22.4 °C	42 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 19
1 Sept	23.5 °C	29 %	70 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
2 Sept	19.3 °C	36 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
3 Sept after	11.2 °C	52 %	45 km/h	4.5 mm	Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Jul 2023

After · 9 Sept 2023

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 29 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 3,181 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 1,136: 76 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak3,181 µg/m³

Days over the guideline43 days

PM103,137 µg/m³

Optical depth16.50

WHO 15

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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 · 750Every 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 13 July 2023 and 2 September 2023: 52 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 3,254 hectares (32.5 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Mackenzie County (3,331 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned