Smoke from Western wildfires is making its way across the country, bringing vivid red sunsets and moonshine to the East. However, it is also transporting poor air quality and potentially severe health impacts hundreds of kilometers away from the fires.
Large flames have been raging for weeks throughout the Western United States and Canada. The current biggest in the United States is the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, which has burnt over 600 square miles of land and has grown so huge that it produces its own weather.
Days of hazy haze have enveloped eastern regions due to fires burning throughout the country. Nearly 3,000 miles away from the flames, the smoke has fallen over major cities, including Philadelphia and New York, and even in Canada’s eastern provinces.
For the second year in a row, the smoke has drifted thus far into the Eastern United States from the west. As a result of climate change, wildfires have grown more fierce, long-lasting, and deadly.
Air quality alerts are issued over the eastern United States and Canada.
Many states in the East have been issued air quality alerts, such as Maryland, Connecticut, and New York. There are three levels of warnings: orange, yellow, and red. Yellow means sensitive groups are in danger, and red means all individuals living in the region are at risk.
Particulate matter that travels long distances is to blame. Smoke high in the atmosphere has been infused with microscopic particles called PM2.5. These particles have flown with the wind to cities far distant.
In a recent study, researchers found that wildfire smoke is more harmful to humans than pollution from cars.
Wildfires are caused by a variety of causes, including poor land management, but climate change makes them more often and intense. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, much of Europe, the Western United States, southwest Canada and certain parts of South America saw drier-than-average conditions in June, creating tinderboxes in forests.
More than 6.5 million acres have been burned in Yakutia since January, according to statistics released by the country’s Aerial Forest Protection Service (AFPS). Which translates to roughly 5 million soccer fields.
A terrible climatic cycle is behind the flames. These flames are stoked by climate change, but their burning puts even more carbon into the atmosphere, which exacerbates this situation even further.
