Canada wildfires: Tens of millions under air quality warnings as fires burn
Tens of millions of people in North America have woken up to dangerous air quality levels as intense wildfires burn across Canada.
Smoke blanketed large areas of Ontario and Quebec, while an orange haze hung over much of the north-eastern US throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday.
Toronto and New York briefly ranked among the metro areas with the worst air quality in the world overnight.
Much of the smoke is coming from Quebec, where 160 fires are burning.
Canadian officials say the country is shaping up for its worst wildfire season on record.
Experts have pointed to a warmer and drier spring than normal as the reason behind the trend. These conditions are projected to continue throughout the summer.
Environment Canada issued its strongest air quality warning for Ottawa on Tuesday, deeming it a “very high risk” to people’s health.
In Toronto and its surrounding areas, the air quality was classified as “high risk”.
Meanwhile, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified the air quality in much of the north-east as “unhealthy” especially for people who already have respiratory issues.
In total, some 100 million people around North America are thought to be under a form of air quality warning.
In New York, an orange haze blanketed the city’s skyline and shrouded landmarks including the Statue of Liberty.
All outdoor activities at the city’s public schools have been indefinitely suspended, with Mayor Eric Adams warning that conditions are expected to deteriorate later on Wednesday.
“We recommend all New Yorkers limit outdoor activity to the greatest extent possible,” he said.
Local residents in the city said the smell of smoke by Tuesday evening was like a campfire.
On Wednesday morning, schools in the Washington DC area also cancelled outdoor activities as air quality levels were labelled “code red”, while Detroit was listed as the fifth worst major metropolitan area in the world on IQAir’s air pollution rankings.
Public health officials have cautioned people not to exercise outside and to minimise their exposure to the smoke as much as possible, as the air poses immediate and long-term health risks.
Deteriorating air quality has also forced at least one region in Quebec – the Atikamekw community of Opitciwan, 350km (217 miles) north of Montreal – to transfer people with asthma and other respiratory issues away from the smoke.
Fires across Canada have already burned more than 3.3m hectares of land – an area 12 times the 10-year average for this time of year.
Thousands of people have been evacuated across the country.
As well as Quebec, major fires have also been burning in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories.
Climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.
The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began, and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.
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