Smoke and Haze from the Canadian Wildfires Has Returned to the U.S.

Posted: July 19, 2023 9:30 am

The fires raging in Canada are once again going to send their smoke into the U.S. in the coming days, negatively impacting air quality levels for over a dozen states. Is your state in the line of fire to see this smoke? Here is the forecast.

Smoke Travels as Far South as Atlanta on Monday

The smoke from the Canadian wildfires made an encore appearance on Monday, infiltrating many portions of the central and eastern U.S. The inclement conditions are expected to get worse before they get better, impacting millions of Americans as far south as Georgia.

Air quality alerts were put in place for the entirety of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Ohio. In addition, alerts were issued for some parts of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan, Massachusetts, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wyoming, and Montana.

The haze may stretch as far as Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia as the current wind patterns carry the smoke in this direction.

While some of these cities are forecast to see sunny skies this week, the brilliance of these skies may be obscured by the incoming smoke and haze. Residents of the Northeast understand fully how this haze can transform a city’s skyline in a matter of hours.

Monday’s Unhealthy Air Recap

A number of major metropolitan areas have already been under the gun for unhealthy air quality levels to start the week. Residents in Cleveland woke up to a thick smoke cover on Monday morning. The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Cleveland hit 133 on Monday, translating to visibility of less than four miles.

Other major metropolitan areas with unhealthy levels of air quality included Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Chicago. While New York City started the day with an AQI designation of “poor,” the Big Apple had shot up to a level deemed as “unhealthy” by midday Monday.

Any AQI over 100 is considered to be potentially dangerous for sensitive groups. Even individuals with no underlying health concerns may notice difficulty breathing or throat irritation when outside in the smoke for too long.

Update on Canadian Wildfires

Although the wildfire season in the U.S. is off to a slow start, it is the opposite situation in Canada. The smoke from the fires that impacted the Northeast in June were the result of blazes burning in the province of Quebec.

However, this week’s smoke event will largely be the result of fires burning in the western portions of Canada.

The worst of the fires are now burning in Alberta and British Columbia. The smoke from these infernos moved to the southeast over the weekend, impacting the northern Plains before heading into the eastern half of the U.S.

This week’s downgrade of air quality will impact more people than the mass that hit the region in early June. However, the density of the smoke is not likely to be as bad.

Local officials in Canada have confirmed that over 26.4 million acres have burned since the start of the year. The previous record for acreage burned in Canada was 17.5 million set back in 1995.The current models predict that up to 40 million acres may burn by the time that the year is over.

Two people have died while fighting fires in Canada, both occurring in the past week. One death happened in British Columbia last week with the second death happening in the Northwest Territories over the weekend.

Update on U.S. Wildfires

All of this is happening in Canada just as the start of the U.S. wildfire season gets underway. Although the fire situation has been fairly tranquil across the country thus far, meteorologists are warning that conditions are ripe for development in the coming days.

The largest fire burning in California is the Rabbit Fire in Riverside County, located just east of Los Angeles. As of late Monday, this fire had scorched about 7,600 acres and was only 35% confined. CalFire confirmed that evacuations were issued near Highway 79. No cause of this fire has been determined.

Wildfires that ignite across the western U.S. will only serve to send more plumes of smoke throughout this half of the nation.

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