How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?

It burned between 2 July 2024 and 13 August 2024: 43 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 5,059 hectares (50.6 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire only entered Mackenzie County (5,061 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 67 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 · 2024-07-02 → 2024-08-13

Mackenzie County fire, 2 July 2024 Mackenzie County

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2024, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 2 July 2024 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 5,059 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 103th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 243 with a page). Number 140 in Canada in 2024, of 291.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Improvement District No. 24 W* · 2023 Improvement District No. 24 W* · 2017

Burnt area: 5,059ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 43days; 2 Jul 2024 – 13 Aug 2024
Census subdivisions hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 2 Jul; 2024
Heat detections: 1,162; in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start: 4; Very low · FWI index
Average daily power: 658MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jul13 Aug

Play back 13 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jul 18 Jul 19 Jul 20 Jul 22 Jul 8 Aug 10 Aug 12 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

67km/h · peak gust

21%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 14 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 3.2% of the area of London (51 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each census subdivision

Mackenzie County where it started

5,061 ha reached on 16 Jul

0.1 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
2 Jul	26.5 °C	41 %	38 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 4
3 Jul	23.5 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.6 mm	Low 8
4 Jul	27.3 °C	34 %	56 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
5 Jul	25.1 °C	43 %	40 km/h	2.9 mm	Very low 4
6 Jul	24.4 °C	40 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
7 Jul	28.7 °C	33 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
8 Jul	27.3 °C	42 %	23 km/h	2.6 mm	Very low 5
9 Jul	33.5 °C	28 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
10 Jul	30.2 °C	31 %	32 km/h	2.2 mm	Low 11
11 Jul	26.3 °C	31 %	55 km/h	2.6 mm	Low 10
12 Jul	16.8 °C	50 %	47 km/h	1.7 mm	Low 6
13 Jul	21.9 °C	33 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
14 Jul	25.3 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 16
15 Jul	28.6 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
16 Jul	33.7 °C	33 %	26 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 15
17 Jul	32.7 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
18 Jul	34.4 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
19 Jul	29.4 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
20 Jul	27.7 °C	49 %	27 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 19
21 Jul	27.3 °C	57 %	22 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 14
22 Jul	28.2 °C	49 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
23 Jul	28.0 °C	46 %	42 km/h	14.5 mm	Very low 3
24 Jul	23.8 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 7
25 Jul	17.6 °C	67 %	63 km/h	14.4 mm	Very low 0
26 Jul	17.3 °C	63 %	67 km/h	20.8 mm	Very low 0
27 Jul	24.6 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
28 Jul	26.6 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
29 Jul	19.4 °C	64 %	46 km/h	3.8 mm	Very low 1
30 Jul	24.7 °C	41 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 4
31 Jul	22.5 °C	50 %	28 km/h	3.9 mm	Very low 1
1 Aug	21.3 °C	53 %	31 km/h	5.7 mm	Very low 0
2 Aug	23.2 °C	36 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	Very low 2
3 Aug	23.4 °C	41 %	20 km/h	0.2 mm	Very low 5
4 Aug	21.2 °C	52 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
5 Aug	23.8 °C	41 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
6 Aug	23.2 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
7 Aug	24.5 °C	36 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
8 Aug	26.8 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
9 Aug	27.7 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
10 Aug	29.7 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
11 Aug	31.7 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
12 Aug	32.3 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
13 Aug	25.7 °C	50 %	29 km/h	1.8 mm	Low 6
14 Aug after	19.0 °C	63 %	23 km/h	2.1 mm	Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 25 Jun 2024

After · 20 Aug 2024

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 6 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 1,155 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 474: 32 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,155 µg/m³

Days over the guideline34 days

PM101,650 µg/m³

Optical depth9.28

WHO 15

301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516

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 · 1,162Every 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 2 July 2024 and 13 August 2024: 43 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 5,059 hectares (50.6 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire only entered Mackenzie County (5,061 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 67 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
CWFIS · Interactive map ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,162 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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