Where Yellowknife’s orange smoke cloud came from

You know the drill by now. An apocalyptic orange cloud hoves into view, interrupting what had been a blue sky. It’s another summer day in Yellowknife.

Wednesday’s cloud began consuming the sky a little after 4pm.

Yellowknife has had its fair share of unbelievably orange skies. This one might not be the worst the city has ever seen, but it was still enough for multiple people downtown to stop and take photos on the commute home from work.

Here’s a sequence of satellite images, via Zoom Earth, that shows how the cloud materialized.

The bulk of the cloud seems to come from wildfires burning between Fort Providence and Behchokǫ̀.

Earlier, the NWT’s Department of Infrastructure had warned those fires – which overlap Highway 3 – would create “extreme conditions” in the area.

“Highway staff are patrolling daily, and if conditions worsen, closures may be required. The safety of our staff and the travelling public is the top priority,” the department stated on Wednesday morning.

The highway remained open as of 5:45pm but with visibility warnings still in place.

Orange Yellowknife days of note
May 27, 2023: “No ordinary storm cloud”
September 23, 2023: “Grossest morning in history”
July 30, 2025: “Orange evening”

Meanwhile, heavy smoke in Tłı̨chǫ communities led to the closure of multiple government offices for the day.

Whatì is on evacuation alert because of a wildfire about eight to 10 kilometres southwest of the community.