Burned area
satellite only2,912ha
Perimeter published by NBAC (NRCan).
- Source
- NBAC (NRCan)
- Date
- 16 Jul 2024 – 11 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CA · Canada · –
Northern Lights County fire, July 2024 Northern Lights County
Out · last detection 11 Aug 2024, 21:04 UTC
The fire started on 16 July 2024 in Northern Lights County, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,912 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.
It is the 121th largest in Alberta since 2016 (of 176 with a page). Number 183 in Canada in 2024, of 291.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only27days
16 Jul 2024 to 11 Aug 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- NBAC (NRCan) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 11 Aug 2024, 21:04 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only16 Jul 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- NBAC (NRCan) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 16 Jul 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only672
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 298 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
- Date
- 16 Jul 2024 – 11 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only10,790MW
Total radiative power on 18 July 2024; hotspots that day: 283.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model9.0FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 16 Jul 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model31.6°C · 20% RH
High of 31.6 °C and minimum humidity of 20% on 18 July 2024; gusts of 61 km/h on 26 July 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 16 Jul 2024 – 11 Aug 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,912 ha
- Dates
- 16 Jul 2024 – 11 Aug 2024
- Name
- Northern Lights County
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/northern-lights-county-2024-07?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire northern-lights-county-2024-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-07-16 | 2 | 98 | 28.2 | 14.5 | 40 | 11.6 | 22.7 | 1.8 | 9 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-17 | 72 | 2,756 | 30.4 | 12.9 | 26 | 11.3 | 28.4 | 0 | 8.7 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-18 | 283 | 10,790 | 31.6 | 14.2 | 20 | 14.7 | 37.1 | 0 | 25.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-07-19 | 177 | 909 | 27.8 | 12.7 | 42 | 10.4 | 32 | 1.5 | 16.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-07-20 | 76 | 805 | 28.3 | 14.5 | 39 | 7.4 | 28.1 | 0.1 | 5.5 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-21 | 48 | 157 | 27.1 | 15.3 | 45 | 10.4 | 26.6 | 0.2 | 10.3 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-22 | 9 | 13 | 26.7 | 15.9 | 59 | 15.7 | 37.8 | 9.6 | 12 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-07-23 | 0 | 0 | 21.3 | 10.4 | 34 | 23.1 | 55.8 | 2.4 | 0.7 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-24 | 4 | 5 | 17.4 | 7.5 | 54 | 11 | 29.2 | 1.9 | 0.8 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-25 | 0 | 0 | 13.9 | 9.6 | 71 | 15.7 | 36.4 | 7.1 | 2.8 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-26 | 0 | 0 | 17.2 | 10.8 | 60 | 27.6 | 61.2 | 3.4 | 0.8 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-27 | 0 | 0 | 23.3 | 10.8 | 46 | 13.5 | 28.4 | 0.4 | 1.2 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-28 | 0 | 0 | 22.8 | 11.9 | 45 | 13 | 28.8 | 1 | 2.6 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-29 | 0 | 0 | 18.9 | 10.3 | 46 | 14.1 | 32 | 4.9 | 0.9 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-30 | 0 | 0 | 23.9 | 7.7 | 29 | 15.4 | 38.2 | 0 | 8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-07-31 | 0 | 0 | 19.2 | 10.6 | 53 | 16.5 | 33.5 | 1.6 | 6.3 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-01 | 0 | 0 | 21.5 | 6.6 | 31 | 14.4 | 36 | 0.2 | 2.1 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-02 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 6 | 30 | 12.7 | 30.6 | 0 | 10.4 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-03 | 0 | 0 | 23.6 | 7.5 | 27 | 11 | 19.8 | 0 | 11.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-04 | 0 | 0 | 14.8 | 10.8 | 75 | 12 | 28.4 | 12 | 0.5 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-05 | 0 | 0 | 19.7 | 8.8 | 60 | 12.6 | 33.1 | 3.4 | 0 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-06 | 0 | 0 | 21.8 | 7.2 | 39 | 8.7 | 17.6 | 0 | 0.7 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-07 | 0 | 0 | 22.9 | 8.9 | 41 | 10.3 | 23.4 | 0.1 | 3.8 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-08 | 0 | 0 | 23.9 | 8.7 | 37 | 12.2 | 32 | 0 | 9.7 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-08-09 | 0 | 0 | 25.1 | 9.1 | 34 | 15.9 | 38.2 | 0 | 13.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-10 | 0 | 0 | 27.9 | 10 | 35 | 16.1 | 37.8 | 0 | 15.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-11 | 1 | 3 | 30 | 11.1 | 28 | 14.4 | 29.2 | 0 | 16.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-12 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 12.3 | 30 | 13.3 | 35.6 | 0 | 19.8 | moderado | 0 |
| 2024-08-13 | 0 | 0 | 20.2 | 12.9 | 62 | 14.3 | 33.5 | 1.4 | 13.6 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: NBAC (NRCan), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,912ha
- official perimeter (CWFIS)
- Duration
- 27days
- 16 Jul 2024 – 11 Aug 2024
- Census subdivisions hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 672
- in a single hotspot: 298 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.7GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
16 Jul11 Aug
11 Aug 2024
How it evolved, day by day
16 Jul
18 Jul
20 Jul
22 Jul
11 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
32°high
61km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 13 Aug.
This area had burned before
2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 54 ha in 2023.
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
-
Northern Lights County where it started2,954 ha reached on 16 Jul0.1 %
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 2025Built-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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jul | 28.2 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 9 |
| 17 Jul | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 18 Jul | 31.6 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Jul | 27.8 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Jul | 28.3 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 21 Jul | 27.1 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Jul | 26.7 °C | 59 % | 38 km/h | 9.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 23 Jul | 21.3 °C | 34 % | 56 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 1 |
| 24 Jul | 17.4 °C | 54 % | 29 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 1 |
| 25 Jul | 13.9 °C | 71 % | 36 km/h | 7.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 26 Jul | 17.2 °C | 60 % | 61 km/h | 3.4 mm | Very low 1 |
| 27 Jul | 23.3 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very low 1 |
| 28 Jul | 22.8 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 29 Jul | 18.9 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 4.9 mm | Very low 1 |
| 30 Jul | 23.9 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 31 Jul | 19.2 °C | 53 % | 34 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 6 |
| 1 Aug | 21.5 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 2 |
| 2 Aug | 22.0 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 3 Aug | 23.6 °C | 27 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 4 Aug | 14.8 °C | 75 % | 28 km/h | 12.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 5 Aug | 19.7 °C | 60 % | 33 km/h | 3.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 6 Aug | 21.8 °C | 39 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 7 Aug | 22.9 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 8 Aug | 23.9 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 9 Aug | 25.1 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 10 Aug | 27.9 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 11 Aug | 30.0 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 12 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Aug after | 20.2 °C | 62 % | 34 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 9.0, a minimum humidity of 40% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 13.
FWI at the start
9.0
Minimum humidity
40 %
Days without rain
2
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Northern Lights County fire, July 2024
2,912 ha
27 days
FWI 9.0
Min. humidity 40 %
Mackenzie County fire, September 2017
1,538 ha
20 days
FWI 10.3
Min. humidity 39 %
143 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 7 Oct.
Clear Hills fire, July 2023
12,427 ha
113 days
FWI 5.2
Min. humidity 38 %
129 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 12 Nov.
Mackenzie County fire, June 2023
5,145 ha
40 days
FWI 11.9
Min. humidity 38 %
195 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.3 mm on 18 Jul.
Peace River B fire, August 2018
19,245 ha
21 days
FWI 5.1
Min. humidity 38 %
192 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 23 Aug.
Mackenzie County fire, July 2019
9,148 ha
16 days
FWI 7.3
Min. humidity 43 %
227 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 5 Aug.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 13. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.4 mmfirst rain
13 Aug2 days after it ended
61km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 11 Aug, and on 13 Aug 1.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 9 Jul 2024
After · 18 Aug 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 533 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 284: 19 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak533 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM10762 µg/m³
Optical depth3.91
WHO 15
14 Jul21 Jul28 Jul4 Aug11 Aug
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 · 672Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Northern Lights County fire last?
- It burned between 16 July 2024 and 11 August 2024: 27 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 2,912 hectares (29.1 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
- Which census subdivisions burned?
- The fire only entered Northern Lights County (2,954 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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
- 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.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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. 672 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.