Latest news with #CanadianInteragencyForestFireCentre
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Apocalyptic orange skies as Canada's wildfires rage
Skies turned orange over Northern Manitoba as wildfires continue to rage across the Canadian province. Eerie footage captured just outside The Pas on June 2 shows thick, choking haze descending over the town, with the sun vanishing behind walls of smoke. Renell Ross, 23, a local resident, said: "My sister and I were cooking when we noticed the sky gradually changing. "It became darker with a deep red hue, creating an increasingly ominous atmosphere." Ross prepared to flee but ultimately stayed, sealing the windows and switching off the AC to avoid the acrid smoke. Canada is grappling with over 200 active wildfires with more than half classified as "out of control," according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. These fires have scorched approximately 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of land, primarily in provinces such as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Winnipeg Free Press
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Planning for the next fires — they're coming
Opinion As Manitobans flee from a dozen or more forest fires — some massive and others smaller, but threatening communities — we are in the midst of the largest mass evacuation since the 1950 Red River flood. What's going on? In two words — climate change. Let's stop dancing around the issue with nonsense about this simply being one of those extreme events that could have happened any time. This is a worldwide phenomenon. We now officially have a fifth season — fire season. And this is just a preview. We haven't even begun to exit the age of fossil fuels, and in fact under the 'leadership' of America, we are revisiting its golden age. Supplied by Gilles Gauthier Fire season may become a new and constant feature of the boreal forest. At the moment, as a nation whose total contribution of greenhouse gases is minimal, all we can do is throw everything we've got into adaptation to the rapidly accelerating effects of climate change. The four pillars of dealing with emergencies are: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Can we prevent forest fires? Of course not; they are an integral feature of ecosystem health in the boreal forest. What is striking about this year's conflagrations is their size, five exceeding 30,000 hectares, and one exceeding 125,000 hectares. Research has shown that under a natural fire regime individual fires are much, much smaller. The natural mosaic of age classes of forest growth ranging from fresh burns to ready-to-burn old growth and everything in between — an ecological law of the boreal if you like — presented natural fire breaks that limited fire size. What has upset this natural balance? We have. First, we established permanent and sometimes large communities in the boreal. To protect life and property, we have therefore aggressively suppressed fires, but in doing so have created large areas of kindling that will eventually catch fire; and with climate change-induced droughts and heat waves, eventually is never far off. We could have required companies leasing timber cutting rights to cut in smaller, non-contiguous blocks to mimic nature's mosaic, but we didn't. And regardless, logging results in the loss of nutrients essential for forest regeneration. Even the cause of these fires has not been natural. No lightning strikes this year; human hands, careless or otherwise, are responsible. There are already calls for the province to increase its preparedness budget — more water bombers, more trained firefighting crews appropriately equipped. Perhaps more resources are needed as long as it's recognized that Manitoba cannot afford to budget annually to meet an emergency of the magnitude of the one we now face. Yes, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre does a great job in co-ordinating the shuttling of crews and water bombers between provinces to where they are most needed; but with simultaneous crises in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, this is not enough. We can't turn back the clock. We live and work in the boreal, so we will continue our immediate response tactics but with even greater intensity. And although the threat will not materialize every year, extreme temperatures and extended droughts will ensure that 2025 is not a one-off. We need a more strategic approach, not under the illusion that we will prevent all large-scale forest fires, but that there may be some things we might do to reduce the frequency of the large ones, and reduce the risk to life and property. Perhaps open burning should be banned — with appropriate penalties — unless specifically authorized, reversing the present policy. Are there ways to 'fireproof' communities through building codes and created fire breaks? Should all timber harvesting operations be required to harvest in patterns that replicate the natural mosaic? Natural Resources Canada — responsible for the admittedly small federal role in forest management — can finally play a useful role through a national program of training and equipping firefighting personnel and establishing a national fleet of water bombers deployable anywhere in Canada. We can accept the status quo and confine our actions to spending hundreds of millions of dollars every few years to douse fires and move people out of harm's way. But surely, we can do much more than that. But it will require a national effort. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. Our federal government is committed to funding 'nation building' projects. Actually, Canada has, in its recent travails, proven quite strong. I would prefer to see the government of Canada undertake 'national preservation' projects, none more urgent, complex and expensive than climate change adaptation. Instead of, or in addition to bricks and mortar, how about a national energy grid and re-engineered water management infrastructure; oh, and a complete rethink on how we manage our forests. Norman Brandson is the former deputy minister of the Manitoba departments of environment, conservation and water stewardship.
15 hours ago
- Climate
Data capturing hot spots and burned acres show Canada wildfire season off to wild start
While images of wildfires capture their ferocity, data can provide insight into how bad a fire season is. Such is the case with two graphics, powered by satellite data, that showcase a Canadian wildfire season off to a wild — and scary — start. Twice a day a NASA satellite sends images to the ground, giving a real-time view of where fires are burning. This is especially useful for remote areas where no sensors are stationed. As of Tuesday that satellite had picked up four times as many fire hot spots across Canada than is typical for early June. That's more than any year since the satellite began transmitting in 2012, except 2023, according to data from Global Forest Watch. Though the satellite has recorded thousands of hot spots so far this year, that does not mean there are actually that many active fires. Each hot spot could be detected repeatedly over the course of days. And because each detection is about the size of 26 football fields, it can represent part of a much larger blaze, said James MacCarthy, wildfire research manager at Global Forest Watch. Based on data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, about 200 fires are actively burning in Canada and have consumed about 7,700 square miles (19,900 square kilometers) of terrain, most of it in the last week. Only 2023 saw such high numbers so early in Canada's fire season, which runs from April through October. That year wildfires burned a record 67,000 square miles — more than twice the surface area of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. Taken together, the hot spots and acres burned mean 2025 is the second-worst start to the season in years. 'A warm and dry finish to May and early June has created a significant fire season,' said Liam Buchart, a fire weather specialist with the Canadian Forest Service. The weather conditions are made more likely by climate change and encourage wildfires to start. That means even though 90% of wildfires in Manitoba this year have been human-caused, according to the provincial government, climate change helps enable their spread. 'Climate change is creating the conditions that make it more likely that human-caused fires are going to spread, or even start,' MacCarthy said. 'It might be a human starting it, but it's going to spread quickly because now there's hot and dry conditions that are occurring more frequently and more intensely than they have in the past.' The hot and dry weather is likely to to continue for at least the next week across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, according to Natural Resources Canada. The agency's forecasts also call for 'a warmer and drier than normal July and August for large portions of Canada,' Buchart said. 'The remainder of the fire season looks to remain above normal, especially over the northern prairie provinces and southern British Columbia,' he said. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
India Today
18 hours ago
- Climate
- India Today
Canadian wildfire smoke spreads across a third of US, worsens air quality
Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada spread across nearly one-third of the United States on Wednesday, according to forecasters. Most areas didn't face serious air quality issues, but some parts of New England, New York state, and the Midwest faced unhealthy haze, which brought hazardous levels of particulate pollution to Minnesota a day earlier, stretched from the Dakotas through the Ohio Valley, into the Northeast and as far south as Georgia, according to the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Centre in College Park, Maryland. It was especially thick in New York and New of the smoke is aloft in the upper atmosphere, so in a lot of areas there aren't air quality issues," said Marc Chenard of the National Weather Service. "But there are air quality issues as far south as New York and Connecticut, where it's thicker and in the lower atmosphere."CANADA BATTLES MASSIVE FIRES The smoke originated from hundreds of wildfires burning in Canada since early May. As of Tuesday, more than 212 fires were active across the country, with half of them out of control, said the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The worst fires are in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. So far, 2 million hectares (or 4.9 million acres) have warned that smoke can be harmful to health. Yang Liu, an environmental health professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said, "It will affect everyone at some level, all walks of life. It's bad." He explained that the smoke contains tiny toxic particles -- smaller than 1/40th of a human hair -- that can enter the lungs and even reach the quality is worst in Williamstown, Massachusetts, near the borders of Vermont and New York. The town recorded a "very unhealthy" score of 228, according to IQAir, which tracks global air quality. A score below 50 is considered good, while anything above 100 is considered quality levels in some parts of the Midwest had also improved on Wednesday morning. Ely, near Minnesota's border with Manitoba, registered a "moderate" reading of 65, down from 336 on Tuesday. Minneapolis, which was ranked as the third-worst city in the world for air quality on Tuesday, with a 168 reading, registered at inputs from Reuters
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Data capturing hot spots and burned acres show Canada wildfire season off to wild start
While images of wildfires capture their ferocity, data can provide insight into how bad a fire season is. Such is the case with two graphics, powered by satellite data, that showcase a Canadian wildfire season off to a wild — and scary — start. Twice a day a NASA satellite sends images to the ground, giving a real-time view of where fires are burning. This is especially useful for remote areas where no sensors are stationed. As of Tuesday that satellite had picked up four times as many fire hot spots across Canada than is typical for early June. That's more than any year since the satellite began transmitting in 2012, except 2023, according to data from Global Forest Watch. Though the satellite has recorded thousands of hot spots so far this year, that does not mean there are actually that many active fires. Each hot spot could be detected repeatedly over the course of days. And because each detection is about the size of 26 football fields, it can represent part of a much larger blaze, said James MacCarthy, wildfire research manager at Global Forest Watch. Based on data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, about 200 fires are actively burning in Canada and have consumed about 7,700 square miles (19,900 square kilometers) of terrain, most of it in the last week. Only 2023 saw such high numbers so early in Canada's fire season, which runs from April through October. That year wildfires burned a record 67,000 square miles — more than twice the surface area of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. Taken together, the hot spots and acres burned mean 2025 is the second-worst start to the season in years. 'A warm and dry finish to May and early June has created a significant fire season,' said Liam Buchart, a fire weather specialist with the Canadian Forest Service. The weather conditions are made more likely by climate change and encourage wildfires to start. That means even though 90% of wildfires in Manitoba this year have been human-caused, according to the provincial government, climate change helps enable their spread. 'Climate change is creating the conditions that make it more likely that human-caused fires are going to spread, or even start,' MacCarthy said. 'It might be a human starting it, but it's going to spread quickly because now there's hot and dry conditions that are occurring more frequently and more intensely than they have in the past.' The hot and dry weather is likely to to continue for at least the next week across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, according to Natural Resources Canada. The agency's forecasts also call for 'a warmer and drier than normal July and August for large portions of Canada,' Buchart said. 'The remainder of the fire season looks to remain above normal, especially over the northern prairie provinces and southern British Columbia,' he said. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at M.k. Wildeman, The Associated Press
