See a satellite view of wildfire smoke from Canada across the U.S.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the eastern coast of the United States on Wednesday, prompting health concerns in cities with “Code Red” air quality alerts and grounding flights. A low-pressure weather system is directing the smoke south.
The latest generation of weather satellites captured how smoke choked large swaths of the United States. The images were produced by Colorado State University, the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (CSU/CIRA & NOAA).
Dakota Smith, a CIRA satellite analyst, went a step further and animated the imagery — showing how weather systems and the fires interacted with each other throughout May and early June.
Here are some of the animations Smith created:
Wildfires rage in Quebec
As wildfires raged in Quebec on Tuesday, the video shows smoke pouring into the United States. “These cluster of fires are the main culprit for smoky skies across the Northeast U.S.,” Smith said.
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There are hundreds of active fires across Canada, many of which the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center has listed as “out of control.”
Canada is on track to experience one of worst wildfire seasons in modern history, experts say. Millions of acres of land have been destroyed by fire.
Low-pressure system throws smoke south
Here, the satellite shows how a low-pressure weather system is redirecting, like a judo throw, the smoke onto the East Coast of the United States.
A low-pressure weather system north of New England near Maine is pulling the unusually large amount of smoke south along the Eastern Seaboard, said Jacob DeFlitch, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Seattle office. He said the weather system is simply sitting off the coast.
The smoke has stretched into the Carolinas, prompting health advisories that affected millions of Americans.
How it looked a week ago
Meteorologists and forecasters were already beginning to talk about the smoke a week ago, said Smith. This video shows the first wisps of smoke along Nova Scotia on May 30.
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He said that was enough to cause concern in his world. Now those thin patches seem like nothing compared with smoke settling into New York City and Washington, D.C.
The fire spread east to Nova Scotia before hitting Quebec, where most of the smoke is now being produced.
End of carouselSmoke swirls and chokes
This is a close-up of the smoke being steered over the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States.
“It almost looks like the smoke is pouring down into the Northeast United States,” said Smith, the satellite specialist.
Wind in this area usually moves from west to east, but then it met a low-pressure system that rotates counterclockwise.
What would happen to the smoke if the low-pressure system wasn’t there? “It would maybe get a little of the U.S.,” he said, “ … but it certainly wouldn’t be diving down to New York City.”
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There’s good news, Smith said: It seems the system is weakening.
He said it is pulling west, meaning some smoke may start entering the American Midwest.
“I’d like to hope that today was the worst of it,” he said Wednesday.
Land — and records — scorched
This video shows fires creating smoke in western Canada from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on May 15.
Western Canada did not receive much snowfall this winter. That, along with record-breaking heat, made the area prone to wildfires, said Mike Flannigan, a wildfire science professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia.
What’s odd, he said, is that the fires have spread to the entire country and sustained themselves for so long.
“We’re seeing more area burned than we have during our modern time,” he said.
Our ‘new reality’
The “new reality” for North Americans will involve more smoke events like this because of climate change, said Flannigan.
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Flannigan, who has monitored wildfires since the late 1970s, said he has never seen a season like this one in Canada — and it may continue to rage for months.
“It’s a huge piece of real estate and it’s going to continue to burn,” he said.
Not every year is going to be this bad, he added, but these spells of intense smoke from Canada will come more often.
“Canada is known for exporting cold fronts, hockey players and smoke,” he said. “Perhaps you can live with our hockey players.”
Editing by Kyle Rempfer. Video editing by Hadley Green and Neeti Upadhye.
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