Wildfires in Canada have been raging for multiple weeks and prompted a series of evacuations and aid from international partners. Local authorities have indicated the latest number of active wildfires sits at nearly 500, many of them yet under control.
The smoke from Canada’s devastating wildfires has reached Europe, but the Continent’s skies are unlikely to turn orange as happened in North America.
The bloc’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said Tuesday that as the fires in Quebec and Ontario have intensified further, they sent a large plume across the Atlantic.
The smoke arrived in Portugal and Spain on Monday and is expected to sweep across Western Europe and the British Isles until at least Thursday.
Officials in Portugal forecasted skies “obscured by smoke particles” on Tuesday and Spain, France and other Western European countries were also affected.
The plume of smoke and soot from the wildfires currently stretches for thousands of miles, from Quebec and across the Atlantic Ocean, satellite images show. On Sunday, it reached the Azores Islands. By Monday, its outer edge was hovering above Western Europe.
The smoke in Europe is not currently a health hazard as it has been in Canada and the United States, as the smoke is much higher in the air over Europe, sitting at at least 3,600 feet above the surface. Experts have noted it may create especially vivid sunrises and sunsets over the coming days.
French media is reporting the country should see the peak of ash and soot in the air on Wednesday. While the smoke is currently just a visual oddity for Western Europe, back in North America, the wildfires and the accompanying smoke remain an issue.
There are 172 communities in Canada currently under air quality alerts. Additionally, the US midwest is also suffering from poor air quality.
At present, there are 487 active wildfires in Canada, with 257 of them burning out of control.
Emission levels from the Canadian fires are off the charts, the agency said, hitting 160 megatons of CO2 since early May. That’s equal to the annual emissions of the Netherlands.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, 7.8 million hectares (19.3 million acres) of wildland area has already been ravaged by Canadian wildfires. The recorded figure makes it the worst wildfire season since the agency began tracking the number in 1980.
More than half of the wildfire season in Canada remains, which typically runs from June to August.
While air quality in Europe has not been affected, many areas of North America are seeing dangerous conditions.
In Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, the air quality was deemed as “high risk” over the weekend.
Residents experienced a slight reprieve on Monday thanks to stormy weather and wind changes, but the smoke is likely to return later in the week.
Smoke isn't posing the same health risks in Europe
Air quality warnings have also been issued in the US including in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana.
“We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change,” tweeted Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“These fires are affecting everyday routines, lives and livelihoods, and our air quality. We’ll keep working - here at home and with partners around the world - to tackle climate change and address its impacts.”
Direct links between the wildfires in Canada this month and climate change have not been confirmed by scientists. But in general, the climate crisis is provoking more fire-inducing conditions.
A 2021 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that dry, windy and hot weather conditions, which increase the chances of fire taking hold, will become more common in some places, including Atlantic Canada and the US, as climate change worsens.
Unlike the low-lying smoke that triggered hazardous air quality alerts in the U.S. earlier this month, the smoke that has reached Europe seems to be hanging higher in the air, at 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) and above, according to climate agencies.
"Whilst the smoke is high up in the atmosphere, it may make for some vivid sunrises and sunsets in the next few days," the U.K.'s Met Office said, urging Brits to keep their phones handy to capture dramatic skylines.
For now, there's no end in sight to the fires: Canada currently has nearly 500 wildfires burning, and more than half of them (258) are out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. That's up from around 450 fires that were burning in mid-June.
The smoke has also posed a recurring risk to people in the far northeastern U.S., depending on wind and other conditions. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued an air quality alert for Sunday, but it currently has no alerts in effect.
"With smoke there are so many variables at play that we don't normally issue a forecast beyond the next day," the agency says.
"The difference is eastern Canada fires driving this growth in the emissions more than just western Canada," said Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington. Emissions from just Alberta and British Columbia, he said, are far from setting any record.
Scientists are especially concerned about what Canada's fires are putting into the atmosphere — and the air we breathe.
The carbon they have released is roughly equivalent to Indonesia's annual carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
Forests act as a critical sink for planet-warming carbon. It's estimated that Canada's northern boreal forest stores more than 200 billion tonnes of carbon — equivalent to several decades worth of global carbon emissions. But when forests burn, they release some of that carbon into the atmosphere. This speeds up global warming and creates a dangerous feedback loop by creating the conditions where forests are more likely to burn.
Smoke from the Canadian wildfires blanketed several major urban centres in June, including New York City and Toronto, tinging skies an eerie orange.
Public health authorities issued air quality alerts, urging residents to stay inside. Wildfire smoke is linked to higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and more visits to emergency rooms for respiratory conditions.
Now, the plume has crossed the North Atlantic. Worsening fires in Quebec and Ontario will likely make for hazy skies and deep orange sunsets in Europe this week, Parrington said. However, because the smoke is predicted to stay higher in the atmosphere, it's unlikely surface air quality will be impacted.
With much of Canada still experiencing unusually warm and dry conditions, "there's still no end in sight", Parrington said.
Canada's wildfire season typically peaks in late July or August, with emissions continuing to climb throughout the summer.
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