Far Reaching Consequences in Air Quality From Canadian Wildfires

A smoky haze continues to linger over Ottawa on Friday afternoon.  (Westin Camera)

 

"We have these massive fires going on out west in Manitoba, in Saskatchewan, and all this smoke is being lofted high up into the atmosphere and then you have the jet stream, the strong winds higher up in the atmosphere blowing it over to Ontario."

"Even if you’re not smelling it at the ground, you’re probably noticing the sky is a bit of milky colour, kind of a white colour, this is all smoke that’s just been blown over from these massive prairie fires." 

Environment Canada meteorologist Crawford Luke

 

"Things like asthma, cough, headaches — we know that over time [smoke exposure] can increase your risk of things like respiratory infections. It can also increase your risk for long-term disease like lung cancer if you have high exposure."

"Clean air quality is definitely becoming more of an awareness concern because we are experiencing more wildfire seasons that are increasing. They’re longer, they start earlier, they get worse. We’re noticing a lot more air quality alerts."

"Check the air quality and if it’s over five, six, seven, that’s when you need to pay attention. That means air quality could be bad, even if the sky looks clear." 

"This affects the youth, seniors, as well as people with lung disease, heart disease. Anyone with a lowered immune system tends to be considered higher risk. They would be the ones we’d want them to watch the alert a little bit earlier."

Jamie Happy, health promotion coordinator, Alberta Lung

 

"The particle air pollution event is the result of extensive wildfires in central and Western Canada."

"Wind patterns are forecasted to transport plumes of smoke from these fires across much of New England and New Hampshire."

New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services 

A skateboarder cruises down Rideau Street in Ottawa on Friday as drifting smoke from wildfires in Western Canada shrouded the city. (Gabrielle Huston/CBC)

 

Hundreds of wildfires are burning across Canada, many of them out of control with flames sending plumes of smoke skyward, resulting in unhealthy air wafting off with the prevailing winds, reaching distant places. The more gigantic of the blazes deliver thick smoke spreading southward into the United States and far across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom. 

 

Fires in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, from Western Canada, as well as northern Ontario in central Canada burning out of control. Some of the fires range between 100,000 to 300,000 hectares. Fire season in Canada is earlier than usual this year. And this year more of the fires are considered to be man-made; fewer have resulted from lightning strikes and excessively dry conditions along with warmer temperatures than usual. 

 

These early-appearing wildfires have already consumed vast tracts of land and forest, in comparison to the long-term average with about a normal half year's worth of land at this early stage already scorched.  

 

A photo released by the government of the Canadian province of Manitoba shows wildfires burning last week in Flin Flon, Manitoba.   Credit...Government of Manitoba

 

Three provinces have evacuated over 25,000 people altogether, whose habitation is in the line of fire. In Manitoba alone 17,000 of the evacuations have left people stranded away from their homes in fire-vulnerable towns and villages. In Alberta roughly 1,300 people were forced to relocate, as well as some 8,000 people affected by the need to evacuate in Saskatchewan.

 

The largest of two fires in Manitoba scorched 189,834 hectares on the border with Ontario, about 100 km northeast of Winnipeg. On the border with Saskatchewan several fires around Flin Flon are responsible for most of the evacuations there, where this fire season has been recognized as the worst in decades. The fires burn largely in rural forest, threatening communities nearby that remain under evacuation orders, among 20 towns forced from homes in the province. 

 

Smoke that crossed the Atlantic Ocean is blowing over the United Kingdom, contained in a thin, high-altitude layer not expected to seriously affect air quality. "No impacts expected as it remains at height, but could lead to some striking sunsets and sunrises", advised Georgie Myers of the UK's Met Office.  

 

Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force help evacuees board an aircraft in Norway House, Manitoba, on June 3.   Credit...David Lipnowski/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

 

Smoke, carried by the river of air in the sky known as the jet stream, ended up south as far as the coastal Southeast United States where skies turned hazy as far south as northern Florida. The Midwest saw smoke particularly thick with  high temperatures held down several degrees, irrespective of sunshine. Visibility dropped as low as a kilometre or so in North Dakota as smoke drifted groundwise. 

 

Parts of British Columbia to Ontario south of Hudson Bay, saw air quality alerts warn populations. Environment Canada warns residents in harder-hit areas of northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to limit outside time and cancel or reschedule outdoor events. Much of Minnesota, Wisconsin and close locations are under a code orange alert. 

 

The Canadian wildfires have already early in this season burned about half of the average major fire seasons up to 2023 and 2024, translating to over 1.1 million hectares this year so far.  Seasonal wildfire burns saw a yearly average of 2.1 million hectares as opposed the 2023 historic season when 17.3 million hectares were scorched.  

 

A photo from the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police shows firefighting efforts in northern Manitoba, in May.   Credit...The Canadian Press, via Associated Press