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NASA has released new photos taken from space showing what the wildfires in the Northwest Territories look like from up above.
An image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the vast extent of the wildfire in the Northwest Territories. The MODIS image shows thick columns of smoke billowing from dozens of large fires across the territory. Among them, several blazes can be seen encircling Yellowknife, the capital and largest city of the territory.
The territory is grappling with more than 200 wildfires that have already burned an area four times the size of Prince Edward Island.
On Wednesday, the wildfires continued to inch closer to Yellowknife, narrowing the gap to just 16 kilometers, according to the latest fire update from the Northwest Territories government.,
In three western neighborhoods of Yellowknife, residents were placed on evacuation alert.
The territorial government declared a state of emergency late Tuesday, allowing it to access resources to combat what it’s calling an unprecedented wildfire season.
According to data provided by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, by early August— about halfway through the fire season —the total hectares burned across the country were approximately twice the usual amount consumed during an entire season.
Data shows that as of August 10, 2023, that area totaled 13.5 million hectares (33.4 million acres), about the size of the state of Mississippi.
Fires in the Northwest Territories this month are the latest in a series of significant fire outbreaks across Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec since May.
Reporting for this story was paid for through The Afghan Journalists in Residence Project funded by Meta.
This photo taken from space showing thick columns of smoke billowing from the numerous large wildfires fires across the Northwest Territories on August 8. (NASA)