Millions under hazy skies as Canadian wildfire smoke spreads

World
By William

Millions of people in North America are under air quality advisories as wildfires across Canada have prompted evacuations, disrupted air traffic and created apocalyptic, smoke-filled skies even thousands of miles away from the fires.

The United States National Weather Service issued air quality warnings on Thursday for the east coast from New England to South Carolina, as well as parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Health officials in more than a dozen U.S. states have also warned residents that spending time outdoors can cause respiratory problems due to high levels of fine particles in the atmosphere.

Canada is experiencing its worst-ever start to wildfire season, experts say, with fires burning since May in nearly all of the country’s provinces and territories.

More than 400 Canadian wildfires are still raging, particularly in the eastern province of Quebec, where about 150 fires were reported Thursday morning and about 13,500 people were forced to evacuate.

However, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said at an afternoon press conference that the situation was “stable” and no deaths or serious injuries had been reported so far.

However, he added that it would be several days before the evacuees could go home.

“It remains exceptional given the intensity of the fires [that], to date no loss of life, no serious injuries. That’s the most important thing, so stay careful,” Legault told reporters in Quebec City.

Unhealthy air quality

The wildfires have cast orange skies in major Canadian and American metropolises, including New York City, where the iconic skyline was obscured by thick smoke and smog earlier this week.

Shortly on Thursday, New York City’s air was again more polluted than any major city in the world, with an overall value of 178 on the Air Quality Index (AQI).

The AQI measures five major pollutants, including particulate matter produced by fires, and values ​​over 100 are classified as “unhealthy” while values ​​over 300 are “hazardous”.

On Thursday morning, the Washington, D.C., area also saw several readings above 300, prompting local health authorities to declare a “Code Purple” to warn residents of “very unhealthy air conditions” associated with the wildfires.

“Smoke from Canadian wildfires is causing unhealthy air quality in the Washington, D.C. and northeastern U.S. region. This problem is likely to continue or worsen through Friday,” Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted.

[Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, Thursday afternoon, said there was still “a milky haze” hanging over Capitol Hill.

“It’s going to be a few days before this starts to clear up. Right now it stretches thousands of miles from Canada to South Carolina,” Fisher said.

Events cancelled

The haze and poor visibility prompted airline officials to halt inbound flights to major airports in New York and Philadelphia from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, as well as Ohio, for a second day on Thursday. All flights bound for the airport in Newark, New Jersey, were also delayed.

In Washington, D.C., the White House postponed its Pride Month event because of the smoke, and the Washington Nationals baseball team postponed its afternoon game, becoming the latest sporting event affected by the fires.

Smoky conditions are likely to continue until Sunday, when a new storm system shifts the direction of prevailing winds, said National Weather Service meteorologist Peter Mullinax. It will also bring a chance of rain for parts of the US that are near dry.

“We’re finally going to start seeing more relief by the time we get to early next week, when we start to see those southerly winds coming in and pushing that smoke further north and out into the Atlantic,” Mullinax said.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said his administration was ready to provide additional support to help Canada respond to the fires.

The White House said in a statement that more than 600 firefighters and other personnel have been deployed to help their Canadian counterparts fight the flames, while further help was on the way.

“Yesterday I spoke to the prime minister [Justin] Trudeau and offered any additional assistance Canada needs to rapidly accelerate efforts to put out these fires, particularly those in Quebec, where the fires are having the most direct impact on American communities. said Biden.

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