Canada’s fire season erupts, sending harmful smoke into United States

From the article:

Almost a year to the date from the explosive start to the 2023 fire season, hundreds of fires have erupted in Canada, including a dozen major and out-of-control blazes. At least 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of land have burned so far, much of it in recent days.

Smoke from the blazes has led to air quality alerts for much of Alberta and its surrounding provinces, as well as Minnesota and Wisconsin. Edmonton was subjected to red-tinged skies and hazardous air quality over the weekend because of wildfires to its north.

…

Even during winter, numerous blazes in Canada — known as “zombie fires” — smoldered beneath the snow. The combination of a warm and very dry winter set the stage for flames to quickly expand this spring.

Belts of extreme to exceptional drought are draped across the zone from central British Columbia to northern Alberta, where many of the worst fires rage. The majority of provincial land from Canada’s west coast to Ontario is experiencing at least moderate drought.

More than 100 fires were burning in British Columbia on Monday morning, and just shy of four dozen in Alberta. Other large blazes were scorching provinces to the east.

…

It’s not just Canada that is sending smoke into the United States. Mexico is also contributing to hazy conditions because of rapidly spreading fires fueled by excessive heat and drought.

A large plume of smoke from Mexico is poised to spread over far-southern Texas, the southern Gulf states and Florida in the days to come.

Like Canada, large parts of Mexico are covered by the two most extreme levels of drought. Its drought has intensified extraordinary and persistent heat, as high as 123 degrees Fahrenheit (51 Celsius) in recent days — the hottest ever observed in May in the Northern Hemisphere, according to weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.