NOAA satellites are monitoring more than 400 fires currently burning across Canada after unusually hot and dry weather triggered an early and intense
In an average year, only about one square mile would be burned by June 5, according to Quebec’s fire prevention agency, Société de protection des forêts contre le feu .
In eastern Canada, roughly 5,000 residents were ordered to evacuate an area near the city of Sept-Îles in eastern Quebec soon after the fires erupted. Later, an additional 9,000 people in surrounding communities and in western Quebec’s Val-d’Or and Normétal municipalities were ordered to evacuate. So far this year, fires have prompted somein six provinces and territories. Of those, approximately 26,000 are still unable to return home.
Some of these wildfires were ignited by lightning, and SOPFEU has warned residents that there are more out of control fireswith available resources. They are currently focusing on protecting residential communities and strategic, essential infrastructure. Officials have asked for aid from the Canadian Armed Forces and reached out for help from foreign firefighting teams, such as those from the U.S.
Why is all this smoke moving into the United States? NOAA meteorologist, Brian Jackson, explained that the smoke is between a large low-pressure system swirling over Maine, an area of high pressure over the center of the U.S., and a stationary front spanning from Minnesota to North Carolina. This combination of conditions is literally fanning the flames and funneling the smoke southward.
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