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Canada Day celebrations on Prince Edward Island in 2022. Some of this year’s celebrations have been canceled due to poor air quality and the risk of wildfires
Persistent poor air quality over North America and concerns about further fires have led to some Canada Day fireworks being cancelled.
There were also air quality concerns related to the Fourth of July celebrations next week in the United States.
Smoke has rolled across much of the US and Canada this week.
On Friday, cities like New York, Toronto, Montreal and Washington DC topped the list of major cities with the worst air quality in the world.
The first night of an annual Montreal fireworks competition on Thursday was canceled, and the city’s Canada Day event scheduled for Saturday night was also canceled.
However, a celebration in Toronto is still planned. The city is continuing to monitor the situation, a spokesman said, but no changes are planned until Friday.
The July 1 holiday commemorates the British North America Act, which united four British colonies into a single new country in 1867. Like Independence Day in the US, it is traditionally celebrated with outdoor events including fireworks.
A number of cities and towns in some of the worst-hit areas have canceled their Canada Day pyrotechnics or moved them out of forested areas.
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Poor air quality was seen in Montreal earlier this week
Smoke could cloud Fourth of July celebrations
The image for the US Independence Day is unclear. Long-term predictions of smoke levels are difficult, said Dave Roth, a forecaster at the US National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
“The areas where we expect the most smoke over the next day and a half are in Minnesota, Wisconsin and parts of the northeastern United States,” he said Friday afternoon, noting that weekend rains in New England are likely to improve air quality would in the region.
“Showers and thunderstorms are great for clearing the atmosphere,” he said.
Another weather factor — extreme heat and drought — has led to the cancellation of fireworks events in two Missouri cities, according to local reports.
A long, smoky summer
Just in time for the bank holiday weekend, Canada’s wildfires have brought bad air to the center of the continent.
“It’s fairly well known that July 4th tends to be one of the worst air quality days of the year,” said Anastasia Montgomery, a researcher at Northwestern University in Chicago.
“It’s not just the fireworks,” she said. “There’s a lot more traffic, a lot more crickets – the behaviors around the holidays combine with the heat to create really bad air quality.”
The smoke will persist until the Canadian fires are extinguished, Mr Roth said. In addition, forest fires in the western United States – Texas and Arizona – have been sighted in recent days. So far the region has seen relatively few wildfires compared to Canada’s fires this year, but that may change.
“What ends the fire season in the US and Canada is cooler temperatures and ultimately rain and snow,” which comes in September and October, he said.
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Watch: Americans fight under smoke-filled air