Fires in Northwest Territories, Canada

Fires in Northwest Territories, Canada

Fire danger in eastern Northwest Territories, Canada, was very high to extreme in late July 2011. Conditions were dry enough that summer thunderstorms triggered one or two new forest fires every day, said the province’s forest management division. This image shows one of the largest fires currently burning in Northwest Territories. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite took the image on July 23.

Dense smoke pours from the cluster of fires, which are each outlined in red. The fires are near the northeast tip of Great Slave Lake. The lake’s McLeod and Christie Bays are shown in the image. According to the Northwest Territories forest management division, the fires shown in this image are being monitored.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

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