Mackenzie County fire, 11 July 2024 Mackenzie County, Northern Sunrise County, Opportunity No. 17
The fire started on 11 July 2024 in Mackenzie County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 8,625 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 census subdivisions.
It is the 70th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 105 in Canada in 2024, of 291.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 8,625ha
- official perimeter (CWFIS)
- Duration
- 24days
- 11 Jul 2024 – 3 Aug 2024
- Census subdivisions hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,058
- in a single hotspot: 210 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 767MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
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 started6,422 ha reached on 16 Jul0.1 %
-
1,393 ha reached on 16 Jul0.1 %
-
639 ha reached on 18 Jul0.0 %
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 2025Inside 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jul | 23.8 °C | 36 % | 51 km/h | 6.8 mm | Very low 3 |
| 12 Jul | 19.0 °C | 45 % | 45 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 13 Jul | 21.0 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 14 Jul | 23.3 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 15 Jul | 27.3 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 16 Jul | 31.5 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 17 Jul | 31.2 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Jul | 32.9 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 19 Jul | 29.8 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 20 Jul | 28.3 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 4.3 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Jul | 28.5 °C | 48 % | 19 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 22 Jul | 30.5 °C | 43 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 23 Jul | 24.1 °C | 34 % | 48 km/h | 10.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 24 Jul | 21.2 °C | 42 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 25 Jul | 14.4 °C | 68 % | 70 km/h | 36.1 mm | Very low 0 |
| 26 Jul | 13.5 °C | 92 % | 71 km/h | 64.2 mm | Very low 0 |
| 27 Jul | 22.6 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 28 Jul | 25.2 °C | 53 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very low 1 |
| 29 Jul | 19.4 °C | 53 % | 37 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 1 |
| 30 Jul | 23.5 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 4 |
| 31 Jul | 22.2 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 4.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 1 Aug | 22.0 °C | 51 % | 28 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very low 1 |
| 2 Aug | 22.2 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 3 Aug | 23.1 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 4 Aug after | 21.1 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 7 |
| 5 Aug after | 22.2 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 7 |
| 6 Aug after | 21.5 °C | 50 % | 19 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 7 Aug after | 24.7 °C | 35 % | 17 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 8 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 9 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 11 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 12 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 13 Aug after | 26.0 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 15 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 21 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 885 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 673: 45 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,058Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mackenzie County fire last?
- It burned between 11 July 2024 and 3 August 2024: 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 8,625 hectares (86.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
- Which census subdivisions burned?
- The fire entered 3 census subdivisions: Mackenzie County (6,422 ha, 0.1 %); Northern Sunrise County (1,393 ha, 0.1 %); Opportunity No. 17 (639 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- CIFFC · Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre ↗
- CWFIS · Canadian Wildland Fire Information System ↗
Satellite cross-check
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,058 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.
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.