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July 2, 2025 - Burn Scars Mark a Fierce Wildfire Season in Canada
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Wildfires continued to scorch the Canadian countryside through June 2025. According to the National Wildland Fire Situation Report, 196 fires were burning throughout the country on June 25. Twenty-five of these were listed as “Being Held”, 78 were “Controlled”, 29 were “Modified Response”, and 64 were classified as “Uncontrolled”. The most notable active fires were the Bird River Fire, which had burnt 226,150 hectares and was listed as uncontrolled and the Red Earth East Complex in Alberta.
Overall, from January 1 until June 25, there were 2,144 fires reported across Canada. Although this is only 94 percent of the ten-year average for the same period (2,285), the tale of the extreme ferocity of the 2025 season is told in the area burnt. Through June 25, there were 4,081,812 hectares listed as burned in 2025. That’s more than 3.5 times the 10-year average of 1,174,807 hectares.
On June 25, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image of burn scars across the province of Saskatchewan north of the city of Prince Albert. In this image, vegetation is bright green, water appears deep black, and clouds are white. Fresh burn scars, which stretch across much of the landscape in large patches, appear brick red. Burn scars from previous years, where vegetation has begun to regrow, take on a grayish or tan hue. In the west, a few patches of blue-gray mark smoke from actively burning fires.
The government of Saskatchewan posted a Wildfire Update on their website on June 26. At that time, there were 20 active wildfires in the province. Two were categorized as “contained”, six were “not contained”, nine were “ongoing assessment”, and three were listed as “protecting values”. The report stated that Saskatchewan had endured 286 wildfires between January 1 to June 26, which is well above the fire-year average of 169 in the same time period.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/25/2025
Resolutions:
1km (647.2 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m (3.5 MB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Wildfires continued to scorch the Canadian countryside through June 2025. According to the National Wildland Fire Situation Report, 196 fires were burning throughout the country on June 25. Twenty-five of these were listed as “Being Held”, 78 were “Controlled”, 29 were “Modified Response”, and 64 were classified as “Uncontrolled”. The most notable active fires were the Bird River Fire, which had burnt 226,150 hectares and was listed as uncontrolled and the Red Earth East Complex in Alberta.
Overall, from January 1 until June 25, there were 2,144 fires reported across Canada. Although this is only 94 percent of the ten-year average for the same period (2,285), the tale of the extreme ferocity of the 2025 season is told in the area burnt. Through June 25, there were 4,081,812 hectares listed as burned in 2025. That’s more than 3.5 times the 10-year average of 1,174,807 hectares.
On June 25, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image of burn scars across the province of Saskatchewan north of the city of Prince Albert. In this image, vegetation is bright green, water appears deep black, and clouds are white. Fresh burn scars, which stretch across much of the landscape in large patches, appear brick red. Burn scars from previous years, where vegetation has begun to regrow, take on a grayish or tan hue. In the west, a few patches of blue-gray mark smoke from actively burning fires.
The government of Saskatchewan posted a Wildfire Update on their website on June 26. At that time, there were 20 active wildfires in the province. Two were categorized as “contained”, six were “not contained”, nine were “ongoing assessment”, and three were listed as “protecting values”. The report stated that Saskatchewan had endured 286 wildfires between January 1 to June 26, which is well above the fire-year average of 169 in the same time period.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/25/2025
Resolutions:
1km (647.2 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m (3.5 MB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
