Severe weather · Wildfire smoke
Same fires, different systems.
A single smoke plume can drift from northern Manitoba across the Great Lakes and settle on both sides of a border — but Canada and the United States count fires, warn residents, and measure the air in fundamentally different ways.
Concentrated fire regions · Canada
Where the smoke is coming from
- CANorthwestern OntarioSignificant fire growth periods this month.
- CAManitoba & N. PrairiesEpicenter of activity; near-average burned area for time of year.
- CANorthwest TerritoriesSustained drought, elevated activity.
- CANorth-central QuébecDry conditions contributing to activity.
- CACentral LabradorElevated activity.
- CABritish ColumbiaActivity increasing late in the month.
- CAPacific NorthwestCascades and eastern Oregon/Washington — above-normal significant fire potential.
- CANorthern California / KlamathKlamath and Shasta-Trinity — persistent drought driving large-fire risk.
- CAGreat BasinNevada and western Utah — cured fine fuels, elevated activity.
- CANorthern RockiesIdaho and western Montana — sustained large fires in timber.
- CASouthwestArizona and New Mexico — monsoon-dependent, activity easing but not over.
Two national snapshots · not a comparison
Each country counts its own fires, its own way.
Canada · July 2026
857
Active wildfires
700+ classified out of control
3,137
Fires this season
1.4M
Hectares burned
≈ 3.5 million acres
United States · July 19, 2026
3,888,322
Acres burned year-to-date
1,128,886
Acres in large active fires
—
No directly equivalent 'active fires' count
US reports differ in methodology from Canada.