Images
May 30, 2025 - Burn Scars in Canada
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Canada’s wildfire season continued to worsen in late May 2025, as massive wildfires scorch boreal forests in Central and Western Canada. As out-of-control fires barreled towards cities in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, thousands of residents were under evacuation orders. On May 28, the Premier of Manitoba urged 17,000 people to move quickly from the city of Flin Flon, nearby towns, and several First Nations communities. Federal armed forces were charged with helping transport evacuees to safe locations. On the same day, local media reported that hundreds of people in Alberta were under mandatory evacuation as were more than 8,300 people in northern Saskatchewan.
On May 27, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image of active wildfires and burn scars in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In this type of image, vegetation appears bright green, water looks blue or black, open land is tan, smoke shows as light blue, and active fire looks orange.
The color of a burn scar (the area that has been scorched by fire) seen in false-color satellite images depends on many things, including how completely the fire burned the vegetation, the temperature of the fire itself, the type of soil, and the age of the burn. Fresh burns often show up as brick red, then begin to lighten as they age. Eventually vegetation will regrow, and the scar will become very light. In fire-prone areas, such as this area, it’s not uncommon to see many burn scars of varying ages, from very new to a year or more old.
The two large fires burning in the lower left section of this image are the Camp and Shoe fires. They began as two separate fires in Narrow Hills Provincial Park and by May 27 had merged into one massive fire that covered at least 216,000 hectares and destroyed multiple cabins and other structures within the park. Note the brick red color of the ground within the circle of the flames. This is typical of fresh burn scars.
Another large active fire in the northeast (upper right) is the fire just outside of Flin Flon, located in Manitoba near its boundary with Saskatchewan. North of these fires, multiple burn scars color the boreal forests. While some of these are the result of fires from this spring, many mark fires from last year and previous years.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 5/27/2025
Resolutions:
1km (679.4 KB), 500m (1.8 MB), 250m (3.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Canada’s wildfire season continued to worsen in late May 2025, as massive wildfires scorch boreal forests in Central and Western Canada. As out-of-control fires barreled towards cities in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, thousands of residents were under evacuation orders. On May 28, the Premier of Manitoba urged 17,000 people to move quickly from the city of Flin Flon, nearby towns, and several First Nations communities. Federal armed forces were charged with helping transport evacuees to safe locations. On the same day, local media reported that hundreds of people in Alberta were under mandatory evacuation as were more than 8,300 people in northern Saskatchewan.
On May 27, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image of active wildfires and burn scars in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In this type of image, vegetation appears bright green, water looks blue or black, open land is tan, smoke shows as light blue, and active fire looks orange.
The color of a burn scar (the area that has been scorched by fire) seen in false-color satellite images depends on many things, including how completely the fire burned the vegetation, the temperature of the fire itself, the type of soil, and the age of the burn. Fresh burns often show up as brick red, then begin to lighten as they age. Eventually vegetation will regrow, and the scar will become very light. In fire-prone areas, such as this area, it’s not uncommon to see many burn scars of varying ages, from very new to a year or more old.
The two large fires burning in the lower left section of this image are the Camp and Shoe fires. They began as two separate fires in Narrow Hills Provincial Park and by May 27 had merged into one massive fire that covered at least 216,000 hectares and destroyed multiple cabins and other structures within the park. Note the brick red color of the ground within the circle of the flames. This is typical of fresh burn scars.
Another large active fire in the northeast (upper right) is the fire just outside of Flin Flon, located in Manitoba near its boundary with Saskatchewan. North of these fires, multiple burn scars color the boreal forests. While some of these are the result of fires from this spring, many mark fires from last year and previous years.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 5/27/2025
Resolutions:
1km (679.4 KB), 500m (1.8 MB), 250m (3.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
