Why is eastern Canada on fire — and when will the smoke clear? (VOX)

Why is eastern Canada on fire — and when will the smoke clear? – By Benji Jones (VOX) / June 8, 2023

4 basic questions about Canada’s wildfires, answered.

East Coasters finally understand what it’s like to live in California.

Earlier this week, a giant cloud of wildfire smoke from Canada wafted into New York City, Boston, and other eastern metropolises, engulfing skylines and putting millions of people at risk from air pollution. On Tuesday evening, Wednesday, and Thursday morning, NYC had the worst air quality of any major city in the world.

It’s not only large northeastern cities that are smothered in smoke. States as far west as Minnesota and as far south as South Carolina have watched their air quality plummet, in some cases reaching record levels of pollution. The ongoing air quality crisis is likely one of North America’s worst wildfire smoke events in the last two decades.

Across the eastern seaboard, most of the smoke comes from recent forest fires in Quebec, a Canadian province in the far east that borders Maine. Roughly 140 fires were burning in the region as of Thursday morning, and many of them had not been contained.

CONTINUE > https://www.vox.com/science/2023/6/7/23752832/canada-fires-smoke-climate-change