Canada looks headed for its worst-ever year of wildfire destruction and compromised air quality as warm and dry conditions are expected to persist through the end of summer after an unprecedented start to the fire season.
With the blazes, air-quality concerns have hit high-population Quebec and Ontario in particular, and darkened skies have pushed down into the upper U.S., putting especially the very young, the elderly and those with respiratory issues potentially in danger.
For sure, the record-breaking season’s impact in eastern Canada and the U.S. has many weather-watchers shouting warnings that wildfires, made worse by the increased drought and extreme heat linked to climate change, aren’t limited to the relative wilds of the west, where devastating fires are historically more likely.
As for the U.S., hazy air has discolored the skies stretching from the Ohio Valley to as far south as the Carolinas. Air-quality advisories were in effect to start the week in southeastern Minnesota and parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, as well as in more than 60 counties in Wisconsin.
“A band of smoke from wildfires in Quebec will continue to linger across east central and southeast Minnesota today due to very light winds,” the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency tweeted to start the week, adding that air quality should improve as expected thunderstorms help disperse smoke particles from the air.
Coast to coast: Among worst known starts to Canada’s wildfire season
Canada is experiencing one of the worst starts to its wildfire season ever recorded. More than 6.7 million acres in the country have already burned in 2023, federal officials said last week.
“The distribution of fires from coast to coast this year is unusual. At this time of the year, fires usually occur only on one side of the country at a time, most often that being in the west,” said Michael Norton, an official with Canada’s Natural Resources ministry, told Reuters.
Quebec, in eastern Canada, was considered the worst impacted so far due to multiple fires ignited by lightning, Norton said. “The rate of increase of area burned is also high … if this rate continues, we could hit record levels for area burned this year,” he said in the report.
In Quebec, around 14,000 people were forced to evacuate, and more than 150 fires are still ablaze in the province, according to CBC News.
At least 114 fires are considered out of control. More than 173,000 hectares have burned this year in Quebec’s “intensive protection fire zone” — the area where normally all fires are actively fought — compared with a 10-year average of 247 hectares as of the same date, Quebec’s wildfire prevention agency, SOPFEU has said.
Quebec is looking internationally for support as its firefighters are stretched to their limit.
Visit The Weather Network’s wildfire hub to keep up with the latest on the active start to wildfire season across Canada.
With more than 480 wilderness firefighters on the ground, Quebec can fight around 30 fires, Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters Monday, adding that normally firefighters would come from other provinces to help.
“When I talk to the premiers of other provinces, they have their hands full,” Legault told a briefing in Quebec City, the Associated Press reported.
Canada has about 9% of the world’s forests. Each year over the last 25 years, about 7,300 forest fires have occurred, according to Natural Resources Canada. The total area burned varies widely from year to year, but averages about 2.5 million hectares annually.
“The situation remains serious,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said, according to the AP. “The images that we have seen so far this season are some of the most severe we have we have ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.”
The health risks of poor air quality
Air pollution from wildfire smoke has become a significant health risk in the U.S. and is growing worse. That fact hit hard with back-to-back years of record-setting wildfire destruction in California for example in 2020 and 2021, before some relief was logged last year. Stanford University researchers found that the number of Americans who experienced at least one day with unhealthy air quality because of smoke rose by 27 times over the last decade.
Read: Non-smoking lung cancer is on the rise. Blame pollution, says American Lung Association.
Small particles in smoke that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — about 4% of the diameter of an average human hair — are of particular concern to air quality researchers. Exposure to this kind of pollution can cause inflammation and weaken the immune system, particularly when the tiny particles penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
Particulate pollution, as it’s known, may increase risk of asthma, lung cancer or other chronic lung diseases, particularly in vulnerable groups like older people, pregnant people, infants and children.
What’s more, wildfire smoke exposure might increase the risk of respiratory disease. Increases of COVID-19 and influenza have also been linked to wildfire smoke, according to some studies.
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