May 17, 2023 - Western Canada Continues to Burn

Fires
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Raging fires continued to fill the skies of southern Canada and the
northern United States with smoke in mid-May 2023. The fires had
scorched 478,000 hectares (1,800 square miles) in Alberta, British
Columbia, and Saskatchewan, as of May 16, which is 10-times the average
area burned for this time of year.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the continuing
conflagrations on May 16. Dozens of active fires are marked in red and
plumes of gray smoke can be seen pouring from them. Smoke has risen
high in the atmosphere to form a massive river of smoke which is
traveling eastward and dips south to impact northern North Dakota and
Minnesota.

As of the evening of May 16, there were 89 wildland fires burning in
Alberta, a quarter of which were classified as out of control, meaning
the fires were expected to grow in size. A majority of the 478,000
hectares burned in mid-May 2023 have been in Alberta, according to the
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, but several fires were
classified as burning out of control on that day in British Columbia
and Saskatchewan.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 5/15/2023
Resolutions: 1km (1.2 MB), 500m (4.2 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=2023-05-17

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