Thousands evacuated in Canadian provinces as wildfires threaten air quality
More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remained active on Sunday and diminished air quality in parts of Canada and the US, according to officials.
Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week.
About 17,000 people there were evacuated by Saturday along with 1,300 in Alberta. About 8,000 people in Saskatchewan had been relocated as leaders warned the number could climb.
Smoke was worsening air quality and reducing visibility in Canada and some US states along the border.
An aircraft drops water on a wildfire in south-east Manitoba (Manitoba government via The Canadian Press via AP)
'Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour,' Saskatchewan's Public Safety Agency warned. 'As smoke levels increase, health risks increase.'
Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe said ongoing hot, dry weather is allowing some fires to grow and threaten communities, and resources to fight the fires and support the evacuees are stretched thin.
'The next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can find our way to changing weather patterns, and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the north,' Mr Moe said at a news conference.
In Manitoba, more than 5,000 of those evacuated are from Flin Flon, located nearly 400 miles north-west of the provincial capital of Winnipeg. In northern Manitoba, fire knocked out power to the community of Cranberry Portage, forcing a mandatory evacuation order on Saturday for about 600 residents.
The fire menacing Flin Flon began a week ago near Creighton, Saskatchewan, and quickly jumped the boundary into Manitoba. Crews have struggled to contain it. Water bombers have been intermittently grounded due to heavy smoke and a drone incursion.
Smoke in the air in British Columbia (Nasuna Stuart-Ulin/The Canadian Press via AP)
The US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service deployed an air tanker to Alberta and said it would send 150 firefighters and equipment to Canada.
In some parts of the US, air quality reached 'unhealthy' levels on Sunday in North Dakota and small swathes of Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow page.
'We should expect at least a couple more rounds of Canadian smoke to come through the US over the next week,' said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the US.
Separately, a fire in the US border state of Idaho burned 50 acres and prompted road closures, according to Idaho State Police.
Evacuation centres have opened across Manitoba for those fleeing the fires, one as far south as Winkler, 12 miles from the US border.
Canada's wildfire season runs from May through to September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Post
a day ago
- Irish Post
Canadian wildfire smoke seen in Ireland and across Northern Europe
SMOKE from wildfires burning in central Canada has drifted thousands of miles across the Atlantic, arriving in Ireland and other parts of northwestern Europe, according to European climate researchers. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), an environmental agency under the European Union's Earth observation programme, has been tracking the movement of wildfire smoke since the start of May. Using satellite data, CAMS confirmed that a large plume originating from the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario reached Ireland on Sunday, June 1. Additional plumes are expected to spread further into Europe later this week. 'Wildfires are a frequent occurrence in boreal forests from spring through summer,' said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at CAMS. 'But the intensity of fires we've seen in Canada this year, particularly in central regions, is extraordinary.' CAMS analysis shows that while the smoke has visibly affected the sky, producing hazy skies and vibrant sunsets, the smoke is travelling at high altitudes, meaning they won't have a major effect on air quality in Europe. However, elsewhere the fires have already caused a lot of damage. More than 25,000 people in Canada have been forced to evacuate, prompting officials in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba to declare month-long states of emergency. U.S. states near the Canadian border have also experienced low air quality as the smoke drifts south. The fires are part of what experts warn could become an intense wildfire season in Canada, exacerbated by ongoing drought, that's also affecting northern Europe. Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service has facilities across all of Europe (Photo by CAMS) Similar wildfires are happening across Russia's Far Eastern Federal District, in the regions of Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai near the borders with China and Mongolia. According to CAMS, carbon emissions from fires in that area have reached their highest levels for this time of year since 2018. Smoke from those Russian blazes has been detected as far away as northeastern China, northern Japan and even the Arctic. While current forecasts suggest only minor health risks from the smoke in Europe, Parrington claimed that the increasing reach of these wildfires add to growing concerns about the long-term effects of climate change and global air quality. Going into further detail Parrington said, "The fact that we can notice the impacts of the smoke in European skies is a reflection of the devastation of wildfires which have been burning in Canada, indicating the increased number of fires, intensity, and duration. A lot of smoke has to be generated in order for it to travel so far and be noticeable and shows how people on either side of the Atlantic are connected via the atmosphere." As we come up to the drier summer months, monitoring agencies like CAMS will continue to track these plumes across Ireland and northern Europe. See More: CAMS, Canada, Mark Parrington, Wilfire
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Weather warning from Ireland saved 10,000 D-Day lives
The Allies landed 160,000 soldiers on five beaches in Normandy on this day, 81 years ago. It's known as D-Day and was the largest land, sea and air invasion in military history and a pivotal moment in World War II, on June 6, 1944. Allied forces - American and Canadian - landed in the Nazi-occupied France gaining a foothold and pushing inland. But one of D-Day's biggest secrets for years was that the landings had been delayed 24 hours as Ireland - officially neutral - had passed on a crucial storm warning from Blacksod Bay lighthouse, on the Co Mayo coast. The readings of one young woman, a Kerry-born postmistress Maureen Flavin Sweeney, averted potential disaster and saved countless thousands of lives. Her unexpected weather recordings from Blacksod Bay lighthouse, routinely transmitted to Dublin changed the course of history. This part of story begins on the morning of June 3 at 1am, coincidentally the morning of Flavin Sweeney's 21st birthday. At that point, the Blacksod barometer was showing a slight drop in air pressure, which - combined with a 7m/ph south-westerly and slight drizzle was indication of an approaching storm. It was a routine post or so she thought... However, a little later, she received an unusual phone call. It was the Irish Meteorological Office in Dublin, asking her to check again. Confirming her first reading was right, Dublin then asked for further reports on the hour to 7am. These following weather reports would show a continuing drop in pressure and the wind shifting to storm force 6, the wind having got up to 25-31m/ph. This was data being simultaneously - and secretly - fed to the Allies preparing for a June 5 Normandy invasion. It set off near-panic as specific weather conditions were needed for the landing, codenamed Operation Overlord. It was such vital information that at 11am that morning, the British Met Office threw protocol aside and phoned the Blacksod Bay telephone number directly. To establish the messages hadn't been tampered with on route, they asked: "Were those Blacksod readings correct? And could Maureen check one last time?" Operation Overlord required specific conditions in place shortly before dawn, good weather, no cloud cover, a full moon and a rising tide. When planning began in 1943, it was deemed there were just four possible windows in 1944, but June 5-7 was the only really suitable one. If the summer opportunity had been missed, focus would have turned to landings in the south of France in the Autumn which may have stretched the war to 1946. The data suggesting there would be a storm on June 5 and a respite on June 6 was relayed to General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) who postponed D-Day to June 6. The day's delay saw the Allies land successfully on all five beaches. Mary Flavin Sweeney's readings saved an estimated 10,000 June 6 D-Day lives. President John F. Kennedy, on the way to his inauguration in 1961, asked Eisenhower what had given the Allies the edge on D-Day and was told: "Because we had better meteorologists than the Germans." Yet for the 21 year-old postmistress, there would be very little recognition in the immediate post-WWII years and she was only told of her role by British authorities in 1956. The world learned further details in 2004, while the full extent of Flavin Sweeney's part was not released by the British War Office until 2012. Latterly, the USA awarded her the Congressional Medal of Honour in 2021, their highest award available to civilians. The secrecy at the time surrounding the weather reports from Blacksod Bay was understandable. Ireland, officially neutral in the Second World War, was nonetheless pursuing a policy of mild cooperation with the Allies. This, for instance, allowed stranded Allied airmen and naval personnel return via Northern Ireland while, at the same time, similar Axis personnel were interned. Ireland also consented to Allied weather/air sea-rescue aircraft based at RAF Castle Archdale on Lough Erne - Catalina and Sunderland flying boats which doubled as reconnaissance aircraft - avail of a four-mile 'fly zone' between Beleek and Ballyshannon to access the Atlantic. More famously, and following a massive Luftwaffe bombing raid on Belfast in the early hours of April 16 1941, Taoiseach Eamon De Valera had dispatched 13 units of the Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Fire Brigades to Belfast. He further sent the Great Northern Railway to Belfast to evacuate some 3,000 people to Dublin. If the Donegal Corridor narrowly avoided being an act of war, gaining tacit German approval as flights were meant to be restricted to just air/sea rescue, the sending of uniformed men across the border to firefight and supply aid was, unambiguously, an Act of War. Just as was the clandestine sharing of weather information. The Irish Meteorological Office in Dublin's passing data on from their 10 stations to the British Met Service - run by the British Ministry of Defence until as recently as 2011 - was in clear contravention of Irish neutrality. D-Day is now celebrated as a spectacular triumph. However General Eisenhower, who had been working 20 hours a day, smoking four packs of unfiltered Camels each day, was not even so sure of its success. Late into the night of June 5, he reached for a notepad and pencil and drafted a statement, headed by the words 'In Case of Failure'. Now housed in the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas, it read: "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available." That information had come directly from Mary Flavin Sweeney, a young Irish woman based in one of the most western points in Europe - Blacksod Bay.
The Journal
4 days ago
- The Journal
Smoke from Canada's wildfires is affecting how the sun looks over Ireland
DENSE SMOKE BILLOWING from dozens of deadly wildfires across Canada is having an impact on the atmosphere as far as Ireland, according to weather experts. The EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Montoring Service (CAMS) warned this week that several wildfires have been active in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario since May, resulting in the reported development of 'pyrocumulonimbus clouds' (pyroCb). The Canadian wildfires have been devastating, with several measuring between 100,000 and 300,000 hectares apiece, causing evacuations and the destruction of forests and homes. Wildfires in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo While wildfires in Saskatchewan typically begin to flare up in April and May, the situation in the province this year was exacerbated by moderate drought and strong winds in mid-May, CAMS warned. A similar situation was observed on the border between the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, with wildfire conditions driven by hot, dry, and windy conditions in the area. More smoky skies are expected as this week begins, with some of the more gigantic blazes delivering thick smoke that is spreading eastward towards Europe. A smoke map, showing that many of the wildfire plumes are heading eastward. ArcGIS ArcGIS Smoke first traveled across the Mediterranean on 18 May, with sightings reported in Greece and areas around the eastern Mediterranean. A second, more extensive plume crossed the Atlantic during the final week of May, reaching parts of northwestern Europe – including Ireland – on Sunday. Further smoke plumes are anticipated to arrive in Europe in the coming days. As a result, in recent days, the sun has appeared to display extra vibrant colours in Ireland, making for breathtaking sunsets across Ireland. Why is that? Advertisement Brighter sun It's a scientifically jargon-y answer that has to do with how sunlight interacts with the atmosphere – when there's smoke in the air, tiny particles scatter sunlight. Around 6am and the sun is an incredible red which my phone camera can't really show. It could be swirls of sands from Africa or something that @CarlowWeather might know why. Red sky in morning, shepherds take warning. — Zwartbles Ireland • Suzanna Crampton (@ZwartblesIE) May 31, 2025 As explained by science reporter Kenneth Chang , blue and green wavelengths scatter more easily and get redirected away from your eyes, while red and orange wavelengths pass through more directly. The thicker the smoke, the more blue light gets scattered or blocked – leaving the sun looking red or orange, especially near the horison. The higher-energy colours with shorter wavelengths – that is, blue light – scatter more readily, and as a result, the entire sky is suffused in blue. Wildfire smoke back over us again this morning as this is the view of the sun rising in the sky. The main band of rain has cleared with sunny spells but also scattered showers. — Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) June 3, 2025 Smoke particles also scatter light, and because they are larger than air molecules, they also scatter the orange and red colours. That results in far more red and orange in the sky than we are used to seeing during the daytime, imparting a surreal hue. 'Up to the beginning of June, our data is showing that central regions of Canada have experienced a very intense few weeks in terms of wildfire emissions,' CAMS Senior Scientist Mark Parrington said. 'This data, and the fact that we are able to observe the smoke in Europe, is a reflection of the scale of the fires and impacts they have been having.' PyroCb clouds, the clouds formed by the Canadian wildfires, typically form when a fire burns with exceptional heat and intensity, generating enough thermal energy to push smoke, ash and moisture high into the atmosphere from where powerful jet streams can transport the smoke over long distances. PyroCb smoke clouds are denser than regular clouds, CAMS says – meaning more light is scattered. Parrington said that the long-range transport of smoke caused by the fires 'is not unusual', but he added :'it is a clear reflection of the intensity of the fires that such high values of aerosol optical depth and other pollutants associated with the plume are so high as it reaches this side of the Atlantic'. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
