MSGID: 1:317/3 64aeea4a
PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08
TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08
July 12, 2023 - More Wildfires Erupt in Western Canada

   Wildfires
    Tweet
    Share

   Thanks to exceptionally dry and hot weather, the 2023 Canadian wildfire
   season—which normally runs from April to September—has been a
   record-maker.

   According to media reports, in early July Canadian officials warned
   that the country was likely to face a “long, tough summer”—and that
   prediction seems to already be coming true. A brutal heatwave has
   gripped parts of the country, bringing temperatures of 100.2˚F (37.9˚C)
   to the community of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories (NWT) on July
   9, which is the hottest temperature ever measured north of 65˚N
   latitude in the Western Hemisphere. It was just short of the record of
   100.4˚F (38˚C) set at Verkhoyansk, Russia, a village at a similar
   latitude in June 2020. This is very close to the Arctic Circle, which
   sits at approximately 66.5˚N latitude.

   The scorching temperatures across northwestern and western Canada have
   increased fire danger so much that the Canadian forests have nearly
   become little more than tinder-boxes just waiting for ignition. When
   storms rolled over western Canada on July 7 and 9, there were more than
   23,000 lightning strikes recorded in British Columbia alone, and these
   sparked more than 200 new wildfires according to BC Wildfire Service.
   Because fuel moisture is a key component to how wildfires behave, the
   exceptionally dry vegetation means not only fast ignition but also
   increases the risk for rapid spread.

   As of July 11, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC)
   posted that there were 875 active fires burning across Canada, with 48
   new starts in the last 24 hours. 533 of these were listed as “out of
   control”, with 128 “being held”, and 211 classified as “under
control”.
   The largest number of fires were found in the west, with the most fires
   burning in British Columbia, with Alberta second. The province of
   Quebec, in eastern Canada, was in third place. The CIFFC also reported
   that there had been a total of 3,904 wildland fires since January 1,
   which is well above the average of 2,751. In the same time, 9.5 million
   hectares have burnt—an area slightly larger than the U.S. state of
   Indiana and well above the previous record of 7.89 million hectares
   burnt in 1989.

   The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
   NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of wildfires burning
   across Western Canada on July 10. Each red “hot spot” marks an area of
   heat from an actively burning fire. Provinces visible in this image,
   each containing active fires, include (moving from west to east)
   British Columbia (with the most fires), Alberta, and Saskatchewan. The
   northern tier includes Yukon and Northwest Territories. Dense smoke
   smothers much of the region, stretching from Canada’s far north to
   sweep over the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Aqua
   Date Acquired: 7/10/2023
   Resolutions:  1km (2.2 MB),
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-07-12
 
--- up 1 year, 19 weeks, 2 days, 20 minutes
 * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)
SEEN-BY: 15/0 106/201 114/705 123/120 153/7715 218/700 226/30 227/114
SEEN-BY: 229/110 112 113 307 317 400 426 428 470 664 700 291/111 292/854
SEEN-BY: 298/25 305/3 317/3 320/219 396/45 5075/35
PATH: 317/3 229/426