Forest Fires in Canada Cause Dramatic Drop in Air Quality in Cities

2023-06-07 04:03:40

Toronto (Canada), June 6 (EFE).- The smoke from hundreds of forest fires in eastern Canada is causing a dramatic drop in air quality in some of the country’s main cities, which is causing the authorities to recommend Limit outdoor activities.

The Canadian Meteorological Service placed the Canadian capital, Ottawa, on Tuesday in the worst classification on its air quality scale and warned that the population should remain indoors as much as possible, especially the elderly, children and individuals with respiratory difficulties.

Toronto, the most populous in the country, was covered all day by a layer of smoke that obscured the sun’s rays, while a smell of burning permeated the entire city.

The same scenes were repeated in Montreal and Quebec City.

The consequences of the fires extend beyond the Canadian borders and the smoke also affected points in the United States such as New York on Tuesday.

Canadian authorities have warned that they do not expect air quality to improve for several days.

The smoke that covers much of Canada is the result of the more than 400 active fires in the country, some 150 of them in Quebec, a number much higher than usual for this time of year.

In fact, this year there have already been 2,200 forest fires that have burned 3.3 million hectares of forest and vegetation, more than 10 times the average area burned over the past decade.

The Canadian government has warned that weather forecasts for the summer, which anticipate dry conditions and very high temperatures, lead to fears that this year will be one of the worst in forest fires in the country’s history.