The 2014 forest fire season in the Northwest Territories of Canada is reputed to be the second worst for at least three decades, only surpassed by the 2023 forest fire season.Worst forest fires in 30 years cost N.W.T. $55M
/ref> As of 3 July, there had been 123 fires reported in the territory, of which at least 92 were still active and 13 were thought to be human-caused. By 9 July the total had reached 164 firesNews - Cool, rainy conditions to help relieve fire crews across the Northwest Territories - The Weather Network
/ref> and on 10 July over 130 fires were thought to be burning. The smoke generated by the fires was blown into the

Prairie Provinces The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

and created a moderate health risk there leading Environment Canada to declare an air quality advisory for southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba on 9 July. The smoke reached as far away as Bismarck, North Dakota, over south. The smoke was also observed drifting north into Nunavut and east to the

Maritime Provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

and as far as

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. By July 8 the largest fires were the Lutselk'e fire at and the Gamèti- Wekweeti fire at . By 9 July an area of had been consumed, about the size of the island of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

.N.W.T. fires: Gameti, Wekweeti not in immediate danger - North - CBC News
/ref> As of 18 September 2014, the Government of the Northwest Territories estimated that of forest had been burnt and that the fire fighting cost C$55 million (US$44.37 million). One study suggested that a record number of

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...

ignitions during 2014 drove a significant amount of the fires. The Northwest Territories complex emitted 164

teragram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially. ...

s of carbon (TgC).

References

{{reflist, 2 Northwest Territories fires Northwest Territories fires 21st-century wildfires in Canada Disasters in the Northwest Territories Natural disasters in the Northwest Territories

Fires Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are pr ...

See also

References