Wildfire season has begun. Hazardous smoke from raging wildfires in Canada has not only scorched about 15 times the normal burned area but also blanketed the skies in large parts of North America, Norway, and part of Europe as The Guardian reports.
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"Over the last 20 years, we have never seen such a large area burned so early in the season," said Yan Boulanger, a researcher with Natural Resources Canada.
The government of Canada noted that the country as a whole is on course for its worst year for wildfires on record according to BBC News. Quebec experienced over 120 fires. For this time of the year: nearly 11mn acres — with more than 2mn acres concentrated in Quebec alone.
Michael Norton, an official with Canada's Natural Resources ministry emphasized his concerns "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," he said.
Toxic Air in the USA
The toxic smoke from numerous wildfires from Canada, caused the skies of parts of the United States to change. Many found themselves woken up on Mars, with an orange sky blanketing over their town. This raised concerns with health authorities which have issued an alert due to the worsening air quality that may seriously affect some at-risk groups. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has requested the residents to be careful and remain at home.
Kazakhstan Wildfire
In fact, Canada isn’t the only country currently battling with nature. The fire, which began on June 8 in Kazakhstan, caused 14 lives in the Abai region while 316 people were evacuated to temporary shelters. As Daryo reported, the forest fire in Kazakhstan is currently the largest in the world. It exceeds the land coverage fires in Canada that covered New York in thick smoke three days ago.
Climate Change Statistics
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is based on the measurement of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), Ozone (O3), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions. Based on statistics, a "good" AQI is measured at 50 and below, and a "moderate" air quality index ranks between 51 and 100.
With the wildfires, New York City shattered its record for the highest AQI since records began in 1999, measuring in at 413. Philadelphia ranked at 233, while Washington, D.C., measured at 168 and Baltimore at 153, according to ABC News.
Uzbekistan also had its fair share of air pollution, in 2021-2022 the country continuously experiences multiple instances of dust storms which ranked as the country with the highest level of air pollution in the world according to Report.uz.
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