Environment Newsroom (EFE).- The emissions generated by the devastating fires that have been registered since the beginning of May in Canada are the “highest ever recorded” and have caused a degradation of air quality, as reported by the Atmospheric Surveillance Service (CAMS) of Copernicus.
The fires have caused “160 megatonnes of carbon emissions” and have become as of June 26 the “highest annual emissions” estimated for Canada in the 21 years of the Global Fire Data Assimilation System (GFAS) data set. ) of CAMS, which spans from 2003 to the present, according to a statement.
Montreal: the air with the lowest level
Smoke from the fires caused air quality in the city of Montreal, Quebec’s main metropolis, to drop to the lowest levels on the planet on Sunday and the cancellation of numerous outdoor activities.
Likewise, the smoke has caused a “significant degradation” of air quality throughout North America and has even crossed the Atlantic to reach European coasts in the second week of June.
The plume of smoke from the 490 fires currently active throughout the country, 113 in the province of Quebec alone, reached Portugal and Galicia (Spain) this Monday, according to the Copernicus atmosphere monitoring system.
According to CAMS, the new increase in the intensity of the wildfires in Canada towards the end of last week caused a global episode of “particularly significant long-distance movement of smoke across the North Atlantic”, which has reached Europe.
The fires have caused forecasts of “high optical depth values of aerosols and carbon monoxide between June 26 and 29,” according to the European service.
CAMS points out that long-distance smoke travel such as this episode tends to occur at higher altitudes, where pollutants stay in the atmosphere longer. It manifests itself with “hazy skies, with reddish or orange sunsets.”
“The expected smoke drift is not expected to have a significant impact on surface air quality,” notes the Copernicus monitoring service.
The CAMS forecasts on the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 particles on the surface, the ones that most affect people’s health, and that could add to local sources of air pollution, “are closely monitored in case this change”.
“unusual” episode
CAMS Senior Scientist Mark Parrington has underlined “how unusual” this episode of emissions from the fires has been, “compared to the two decades spanned by our data set.”
Especially dry conditions and high temperatures in Canada have caused wildfires since the beginning of last May that started in the western part of the country, which have been expanding to regions in the east.
The Canadian authorities have pointed directly to climate change as responsible for the high number of fires, as well as their dimensions.
The Donnie Creek fire, the largest in the history of British Columbia in Canada, has destroyed nearly 575,000 hectares of forest, a dimension that has led those responsible for the extinction services of the province to give up continuing to fight the fire and they are confident that it will die out in the winter with the arrival of rain and snow.