Montreal, like many other cities, is shrouded in thick smoke and extremely polluted. Forests have been burning in Canada for weeks, creating smoke that is spreading throughout the country, but also in the USA.
This Monday the fumes, driven by shifting winds, will cross the Atlantic, arriving in France and the UK in particular.
“Smoke from the Quebec fires reaches the mid-Atlantic and is partially picked up by a cold front approaching Brittany on a narrow band,” the observatory points out Keraunos on twitter. The resulting ocean current will help bring these vapors back to Europe in the coming days.
As our colleagues from Ouest France explain, the area burned in 2023 with the millions of hectares already burned, corresponding to several French departments, already exceeds the totals of the last 10 years for the period June-September. As of this Sunday, June 25, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC) says 462 fires are currently active and nearly half are out of control. A total of 7.4 million hectares have burned down since the beginning of the year.
premium Mega fires and heatwaves in France… Are extremes becoming the norm?