‘Not just a West Coast problem': Wildfire risks hit home as Canadian smoke lingers

Boston Globe

2 days ago

Increasingly, that's not just a problem for Canada but for New England and other far-flung locations because toxic smoke from the fires, carrying minuscule particles of pollution, wafts into the atmosphere and is carried across thousands of miles. And with that smoke comes heightened health risks for vulnerable populations, like children, the elderly, and people with existing breathing conditions.
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Air quality in Boston lingered in the 'moderate' range for much of Wednesday and was expected to be there on Thursday as well.
Warmer winters, caused by an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, are turning the boreal forest into a tinderbox, said Ness. Less snow results in less moisture on the ground, allowing trees to dry out, and it also leads to pests that can survive year-round and leave dead trees in their wake — the perfect fuel for a fire.
Canadian wildfire smoke will push into New England on Thursday before a front clears it away.
Boston Globe
For over a decade, Canada's boreal forest has been experiencing warmer, dryer conditions than usual. Add on the conditions of this year — a warm, dry winter followed by a warm, dry spring — and 'conditions are primed for bad fires to ignite easily and to spread quickly,' he said.
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It's reminiscent of, though thankfully not as bad as, 2023, when wildfires in Canada led to eerily apocalyptic skies on the East Coast. For one day, New York City had the worst air quality in the world.
'Prior to 2023, I think most people thought of wildfires as a West Coast problem,' said Nicholas Nassikas, a pulmonary and critical care doctor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 'And what we've in New England come to realize is that this is not just a West Coast problem.'
When wildfire smoke arrives in New England, Nassikas said he hears from more patients, many of whom have underlying respiratory conditions, who say they have trouble breathing.
A study he
In the five years since the study window closed, smoke is arriving more often in heavily populated east coast cities like Boston and New York City. 'I'd have to imagine that the effects would be more widespread than just west coast,' he said.
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Here in New England, where historically cooler summers mean many homes don't have air conditioning, smoke can be especially dangerous, said Jennifer Stowell, a research scientist at Boston University's Center for Climate and Health. Smokey air often coincides with hot weather, so guidance to stay inside can lead to tough choices for vulnerable people without air conditioning. 'You're choosing whether you suffer from heat or from the smoke,' she said.
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And while 'moderate' air quality levels won't be a problem for many people, for those who are vulnerable, she said, they can be — especially when wildfire smoke drives the spike in air quality issues.
'On a normal day when it's in the yellow, it's probably not something to be super concerned about — maybe you make sure that if your kids have asthma, they have their medication on hand,' Stowell said. 'But wildfire smoke has been shown to be more toxic than ambient air.'
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This year has been the second-worst start to the Canadian wildfire season since 2000, said James MacCarthy, a research associate with
fossil fuel in
India, the third-largest producer of greenhouse gasses globally, MacCarthy said.
And that's the trouble with wildfires. They are among the most recognizable symptoms of a warming climate, and also a perpetrator of continued climate change, due to the greenhouse gases that are released.
Canada, with its vast tree cover, is warming twice as fast as the global average, according to a Canadian
Here in Massachusetts, flash droughts have become more common, said Dave Celino, chief fire warden for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. And when drought comes on quickly and lasts, fires happen more frequently.
That was the story this year, until a recent rainy stretch ended the drought in most of the state. But in January, which had an average of seven fires in the last seven years, there were 25, Celino said, mostly because of a lack of snow. The seven-year average for March in Massachusetts is 164 fires. This year, there were 380.
'As fire managers, we're not climatologists,' Celino said. 'However, we can tell you that from our experience on the ground, there is definitely this higher frequency of changes.'
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Here, as in Canada, when you layer a warm, dry period over an extended trend of higher temperatures — taking into account all that entails, with increased pests and dried-out trees — the risk adds up. 'It really is an unfortunate chain of events that, you know, they're all related,' he said.
Sabrina Shankman can be reached at