MSGID: 1:317/3 645a8a2d   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   May 9, 2023 - Wildfires in Western Canada   
      
      Wildfires   
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      More than 100 wildland fires raged across Western Canada in early May   
      2023, forcing an estimated 30,000 people in Alberta and British   
      Columbia to evacuate. The fires destroyed homes and produced chimneys   
      of smoke that reached into the upper troposphere.   
      
      The extensive and dangerous fires moving across Canada’s richest oil   
      region also forced shutdowns of several oil production facilities. As   
      of May 8, energy producers were estimated to be holding back an   
      estimated 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent each day, or roughly 3   
      percent of the country’s output.   
      
      The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board   
      NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke billowing   
      from fires in the two Canadian provinces on May 7, 2023, the day after   
      officials in Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency. A large   
      cluster of red hot spots, each marking actively burning fire, can be   
      seen in Alberta, despite heavy cloud cover. Massive thick smoke covers   
      British Columbia and blows northwest over parts of Yukon and the   
      Northwest Territories. The Great Slave Lake, located in Northwest   
      Territories, remains covered in ice.   
      
      As of the evening of May 8, there were 88 fires burning in Alberta,   
      with 29 remaining out of control in Alberta, according to the Alberta   
      Wildfire Status Dashboard. Fourteen of these fires were listed as   
      “Fires of Note”, which is defined as a fire determined to be of   
      significant public interest and which may pose a threat to public   
      safety, communities, or critical infrastructure. On that same day, four   
      fires were burning out of control in British Columbia, near its border   
      with Alberta.   
      
      The fires in Alberta have been so intense they have produced towering   
      chimneys of smoke. Using remote sensing, researchers at the Cooperative   
      Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of   
      Wisconsin, Madison, observed the formation of a pyrocumulonimbus   
      (pyroCb) cloud billowing from a wildfire west of Edmonton on May 4.   
      Temperatures at the top of the cloud were estimated to have reached   
      -61°C (-78°F), which indicates that the smoke may have reached an   
      altitude of about 12 kilometers (39,000 feet). That would put the top   
      of the pyroCb cloud into the tropopause—the boundary between the   
      troposphere and the stratosphere.   
      
      Image Facts   
      Satellite:  Aqua   
      Date Acquired: 5/7/2023   
      Resolutions:  1km (824.1 KB),  500m (2.6 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=2023-05-09   
       
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