Canada is experiencing its most destructive wildfire season on record, as hundreds of blazes burning from coast to coast continue to send tremendous plumes of smoke into the atmosphere.
typically happens around this time of year in Canada, which is home to about 9% of the world's forests. But with the season occurring annually from May until October, devastation seen from the outset this year put the country almost immediately on track for its worst season in more than 30 years. Out-of-control blazes have cropped up in nearly every corner of Canada and forced thousands of people to evacuate.
A map updated daily by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre shows how widespread the wildfires have become, although eastern provinces like Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia have been hit particularly hard this year by large and at times uncontrollable blazes. Officials on Tuesday reported the highest number of active fires in Quebec, with 117 blazes recorded.
The interagency fire center has recorded 2,956 wildfires since the beginning of 2023. The fires have scorched at least 7.8 million hectares — or around 19.2 million acres — of land across Canada this year, according to the center.
After wildfire smoke traveling south from eastern Canadian provinces brought a marked spell of fog, fumes and copper skies to the northeastern U.S. earlier in June, states being affected most severely this week are in the Midwest, with air quality in Chicago and Minneapolis ranked as the world's worst and second-worst on Tuesday, according to the Swiss air quality technology company .
Smoke from the Canadian wildfires travels across the Atlantic Ocean and hovers over western Europe in this satellite image captured on June 27, 2023.As of Tuesday, a majority of Canada's active fires were classified as"out of control," with 259 blazes fitting that distinction. The number was up slightly from the 250 fires marked as out of control by the agency 2 weeks ago.
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