Canadian fires

Trying being in Colorado. We are much closer and have had the smoke for a couple of weeks. Our worry is that we have been exception wet this spring and everything is growing at a rapid rate. Come July and August there could be a lot of stuff that will burn easy.

For the first time in awhile, Alberta is no longer in an emergency situation. The situation was bad a couple of weeks ago that it was hurting my lungs. It looks like it's Quebec's turn now with firefighting crews from all over the world arriving to help. A friend of mine in Toronto told me yesterday that it was hazy in his area.

Any relief in sight. We get a very quick 3 minute news story here.

Here is a good link to look at the smoke coverage (although it is a US government link it shows Canada as well):

https://gispub.epa.gov/airnow/?tab=0&contours=ozonepm&monitors=none

I'm so sorry you folks in the NE, Midwest and South are getting hit. Smoke is just awful. For a change the West is relatively clear but this level of smoke is our summer normal now.

I recommend N95 masks. I used to keep them on hand before the pandemic made them a "thing", just for summer smoke events.

I'm at work in Oshawa and I can smell it even inside the building. Its burning my eyes and throat, and is ugly yellow.

I read that its affecting flights to New York.

Yeah the smoke has reached down to Virginia and here in Williamsburg we are getting the haze and smoke. Earlier this morning standing on the north side of James River you could not see the south shore of the river as Surry Co. was obscured by the smoke.

I’m in Halifax and we aren’t used to fires. They have been devastating. Over 150 homes lost in Halifax and more homes up Shelburne way have been lost. Many are still under evacuation orders. Many have lost everything.

Knock on wood, none of the fires are near us, but the smoke is really noticeable here. Sometimes the smell and brown color in the sky is very heavy, other times, like right now, it's barely there. I've been wearing an N95 mask while working in my garden. It's cool enough that we can keep the doors and windows closed, and DH put a hepa filter in the furnace this morning. The heat is off, but we're keeping the fan running. Looks like the air quality warning will continue for at least the next few days.

We live in NW Ohio and have had a smoky haze all week…but looking up right now is blue sky and white puffy clouds. I could smell smoke all day Monday. Most of OH is involved. Looks worse in states east from us.

Baseball games in New York and Philadelphia postponed tonight due to smoke.

Those of us on the west coast of Canada and the US have been experiencing this over the past several years. This year it is happening across Canada much too early compared to previous years which doesn’t bode well for the next few months. It was I believe 2 summers ago that our air in Vancouver and the air in Portland were the worst in the world, similar to what NYC is experiencing right now. Here in BC and Washington state, our spring rainfall was too low and we are worried for the coming months. The idea that Canada is the land of snow and rain is rapidly changing to more drought and less precipitation.

“It was I believe 2 summers ago that our air in Vancouver and the air in Portland were the worst in the world, similar to what NYC is experiencing right now.”

Claire, yes, I’m thinking it was 2 summers ago….maybe for us in the Inland Northwest it started in mid-July with the smoke drift. That was early but this year is something else.

If I remember the report correctly, Newfoundland, Nunavut and Yukon are the only provinces and Territories in Canada this year that haven't had evacuation orders for a town or region.

2021 and we got off our first post-Covid airplane flight from Seattle to Minneapolis. I knew that Minnesota was getting Alberta wildfire smoke but thought it couldn't be like what we experienced the last couple of years. We got off the plane and waited to be picked up by our daughter. Took off our masks - we're outside, not in the airport, not on a plane; thought we could finally be maskless. Nope. Smelled smoke. Put masks back on. Got funny looks from everyone.

Be safe everyone. Wear a mask. It's not just for Covid.

What Claire said.
We get some smoke nearly every summer now, but it’s way too early this year, and way more fires across Canada than is usual.
We’ve only had a day or so of just a whiff of it where I live, so far.
I feel I must apologize to New Yorkers.😢
I’d also like to get hold of people who continue to deny climate change.
Preferably in a choke hold….if I only knew how to do one of those.

Ottawa had the worst air quality in the province yesterday. We had to go out, so wore our masks and then took them off when we got to our destination and were back inside - complete opposite of what we’ve been doing the last couple of years.

Today was also pretty bad, but it rained in the afternoon and there’s a definite improvement.

The derecho last May downed so many trees that are now providing the fuel for the fires in the Ottawa area.

So far there are no problems in the interior of B.C., but I can certainly sympathize with what you're experiencing on the east coast. We have had some dreadful fires in B.C. and as others have mentioned it was about two years ago that we experienced the same conditions. Even in the middle of the day, the skies were an apocalyptic orange-brown and it was hard to escape the smell even indoors. I bought an air purifier and it was running constantly during that time. At one point, my city of about 40,000 was put on Evacuation Alert, as they weren't sure which direction the fires were going to go. Thankfully the alert was cancelled after a short time.

The TV news coverage of the fires typically shows helicopters dropping water on the fires, and it makes me wonder why they're not using larger air tankers. Unfortunately I don't think the Martin Mars (which is docked on Sproat Lake in Port Alberni) is available any longer. They have a severe fire in that area, so using it would probably help to knock down the fires quickly.

I'm also in Halifax, about a 20 min drive from the former evac zone in Tantallon. We've all been on edge over the last 2 weeks or so. Fortunately we've been getting several days of MUCH needed rain across the province and so the fire here and the larger one West of us in Shelburne are slowly becoming under control.

However with at least 200 homes lost between the two fires and the extremely low vacancy rate here, finding housing for all of those people is going to be a gigantic challenge. On the plus side however, there has been no loss of human life, although many pets have perished.

Thank you for thinking of us!

PQ

thank you fellow posters for getting us up-to-date on the situation in Canada. The local NY news shows didn’t start reporting anything till the smoke started streaming here. Keeping you all in our thoughts and praying the firefighters can get everything under control with no loss of life, or any more homes.

First, my heart goes out to those being affected by the fires and smoke. Sometimes I really curse our Alaska weather. We are having a very late, cool, cloudy and wet spring. However, it is much preferable to heat, fire and smoke. I also fear a possible climate future because there are so many trees around here.

Heart goes out to Canadians in the fire zones. Scary stuff.

Heavy smoke for at least part of the summer has become the norm in Seattle. I think we got over 40 days two years ago? None yet this year but not holding out hope.

Nearly every story I see about big wildfires points to potential policy problems with aggressively firefighting all fires for the past 50 years or so, aka the "dry kindling effect." I really have no idea what to make of that.

Maybe it's just drier. We've had a summer place near Tahoe in the family for 70 years, past 10 have seemed a lot crispier than anything I can remember ....

I feel for all of you experiencing this. As mentioned, here in WA we have been dealing with this as the new norm for a few years now. It is not fun, especially since I have asthma.

Tammy--I love the cool wet weather in Alaska. Although I remember one summer solstice about 250 miles north of Fairbanks and it was 90 degrees at 9pm. Crazy! Although that same trip, the last few days there were wildfires close by so we were stuck inside the cabin. It was that eerie orange glow on the adjacent hill. We were packing up the bush plane when a forest service helicopter came over and told us wee had a 10 minute window to get out. Our family that lives in the bush were not panicky, but I was!