File:Burn Scars in Canada (MODIS 2023-10-16).jpg

English: October 11, 2023 September 26, 2022

The fire season in Northwest Territories, Canada officially begins on May 1 and ends on September 30, but wildfires sparked early in 2023 and some are continuing to burn into mid-October.

According to the latest official Wildfire Update published by Northwest Territory’s Environment and Climate Change department, as of October 15 there were 94 total active fires, with all of them receiving response. A total of 303 fires in 2023 burned a total of 4,163,423 hectares in that territory alone.

The fierce fire season in Northwest Territories is only one piece of a larger conflagration. Widespread and relentless wildfires scorched 17,874,112 hectares across Canada between May 1 and September 29, 2023, according to the National Wildland Fire Situation Report published by Natural Resources Canada. That’s 656% above the 10-year average of 2,726,465 hectares burnt. The country counted 6,496 wildfires this year, compared to the 10-year average of 5,380 wildfires. Also, as of September 29, there were still plenty of active fires: 488 were listed as “out of control”, 204 were “being held”, 208 were “controlled”, and 118 were classified as “modified response”. The active wildfires were located in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.

On October 11, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired a false-color image that revealed massive burn scars in the boreal forests of western Canada. Vegetation appears green, water deep blue, clouds are either white or lightly tinted with bright blue, and burn scars may range from brick red to deep brown depending on age, completeness of burn, and other factors. Active fires often appear bright orange.

This image centers on Lake Athabasca, which is shared between the provinces of Alberta (west) and Saskatchewan (east). Northwest Territories sits north of Lake Athabasca and includes Great Slave Lake, seen in the northwest corner. The most massive fresh burn scars are found between these two lakes. One burn scar may still have fire activity (orange) although no smoke is visible. Smaller burn scars are scattered across Northwest Territories, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

To compare the changes between the end of the 2022 fire season and the end of 2023 fire season, a second Aqua MODIS image of the same area acquired on September 26, 2022, can be viewed simply by clicking on the date. On that date, burn scars were visible primarily in Saskatchewan with a few small scars in Alberta and even fewer in Northwest Territories. By October 2023, most of those old burn scars had expanded and massive new scars had appeared.