Canada is experiencing a historic fire season. Since the fires in May in the province of Alberta, the situation there has taken on impressive proportions. Here are the highlights from across North America.
More than 3 million hectares of forest burned in Canada in 2023. Several dozen fires are even out of control and are breaking destruction records across the country. The wind scatters thick plumes of smoke over thousands of kilometres. As a result, many North American cities find themselves living in a health-hazardous haze.
The fires have invaded the whole country, the area of Belgium has already gone up in smoke in Canada. The country is on the front line in the face of global warming
In eight years, Canada has lost 30,000 firefighters according to TF1 which complicates the action of firefighters who lack human resources. Several countries have announced the dispatch of hundreds of firefighters to deal with the situation. Due to global warming, this seasonal phenomenon is bound to worsen.
The world indicates that: “wildfires in the three states of western Canada have already emitted approximately 20.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere between May 1 and May 18, 2023, record levels”, in based on the satellite readings of the European service Copernicus.
“New York’s smoke pollution is by far the highest since at least July 2002, when fires occurred near Quebec,” said Ryan Stauffer, an atmospheric researcher based at the Goddard Space Flight Center in the United States. Nasa. “This event rivals and in some cases will likely exceed the smoke pollution seen in 2002.”
Smoke this thick at ground level is rare in the eastern United States, prompting many to notice the optical effects it can have on sunlight. “Smoke particles scatter and absorb shorter wavelengths of sunlight like blues, greens and yellows more easily than longer oranges and reds. So we see sunrises and sunsets. dull red sun in heavy smoky conditions,” says Stauffer.