Europe could see skies turn red as Canada wildfire smoke reaches continent
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has begun to reach as far as Europe as the large and intense flames continue to threaten health in North America.
The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, with smoke now creating unhealthy conditions at ground level for Americans in parts of Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.
It is not expected to bring similar health concerns in Europe, with surface-air quality not affected, but those on the continent have been told to expect hazy skies and reddish-orange sunsets.
The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus.
'That's really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke,' high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service.
The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus.
Smoke hits north-east US
The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday.
'As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area,' the agency said. 'The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon.'
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state's southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors.
Smoky conditions that have reached the US periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia.
Conditions at ground level are unhealthy
The US Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for 'unhealthy' conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for 'very unhealthy" across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning.
The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires
The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow.
While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptoms
Hennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air.
Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include 'increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that's usually COPD and asthma.'
What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients' airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions.
Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel 'quite isolating."
People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don't provide enough filtration.
The Canadian fire situation
Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba.
The Canadian Press reported that Winnipeg hotels were opening up Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier.
In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada's provinces and the country's prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces, The Canadian Press reported.
Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg.
Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Reeves calls for Middle East de-escalation amid oil price fears
Rachel Reeves has called for de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, warning that rising global oil prices could hit the UK economy as she unveiled Labour's long-awaited industrial strategy. Launching the policy package at an engineering business in Nuneaton alongside Keir Starmer and the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, Reeves acknowledged the potential impact on companies of the conflict. 'We want de-escalation because it's the right thing for the Middle East, but we also want de-escalation because of the ramifications of conflict in the Middle East for the rest of the world, including the UK,' the chancellor said. 'We have seen increases in oil prices, in recent days, and weeks, which of course, will have an impact on the UK economy,' she added. 'We recognise the challenge that businesses and families faced with energy costs, which is part of the reason why we're doing what we're doing today, but also why, for example, we've extended the warm homes discount to try and take money off people's energy bills.' Reeves also said she understood US concerns about the risk of Iran developing a nuclear capability, saying: '60% enrichment of uranium is not for civil nuclear. And we've long shared those concerns.' As part of the industrial strategy, the government has announced a new scheme aimed at cutting the electricity bills of energy-intensive businesses, to come into force from 2027. Reynolds said the energy plan would bring the UK from being an 'outlier' in Europe on energy prices 'right into the middle of the pack'. Energy-intensive businesses in Britain have long complained that their electricity bills are uncompetitively high. Reynolds and Reeves said the government intended to fund the scheme by spreading the costs of the 'contracts for difference' through which it pays for renewable energy generation out over a longer period and earmarking increased future revenue from the emissions trading scheme from rising carbon prices. 'We are talking about a major shift in competitiveness for the sectors covered by the new British industrial competitiveness scheme: it moves us from being an outlier right into the middle of the pack – cheaper than Italy, Czech Republic, broadly comparable to, say Germany,' Reynolds said. He added: 'There's no increase in bills for anybody else and no implications for tax or borrowing from these policy interventions by the energy department that will create the headroom to allow us to exempt these businesses.' The business secretary also emphasised the cross-Whitehall nature of the industrial strategy, which covers eight sectors the government sees as having potential for significant growth – including advanced manufacturing, financial services and the creative industries. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The government published separate plans for five of the eight sectors on Monday, alongside the industrial strategy, with three more – life sciences, defence and financial services – expected before parliament goes into recess next month. 'This has got real, significant interventions in it that are not only very important in their own right, they do get to the core of what I wanted, what we wanted, which is, you know, this is not the Department for Business and Trade or the Treasury industrial strategy, this is the British government's industrial strategy,' he said. Reynolds also highlighted a new approach on preparing strategic sites for investment, the significant increase in the budget for the taxpayer-backed British Business Bank announced at the recent spending review and more powers for metro mayors to shape economic development.
The Independent
18 minutes ago
- The Independent
How to spot fitness misinformation online, according to experts
The modern gym-goer is privy to more fitness advice than ever before, with various social media platforms placing thousands of insights at their fingertips. The problem is, while much of it is structured to grab your attention, not all of it is helpful, or indeed accurate. Experienced personal trainer, Everything Fat Loss author and self-professed research nerd Ben Carpenter is trying to stem the tide of fitness misinformation. To do this, he offers a free public service: TikTok and Instagram users tag Carpenter in videos that make eyebrow-raising claims, and the fitness expert swoops in to deliver a science-backed rebuttal. 'I think navigating misinformation is extraordinarily difficult, especially when it's not your domain,' he tells me. 'The way I have described it in the past is, if a mechanic tells me what is wrong with my car, I don't have the knowledge to fact-check that. So if two different mechanics tell me something completely different, I don't think anyone would expect me to know who was telling the truth.' 'If someone is not a health or fitness professional, I think it's really unrealistic to pin the blame on you as the individual if you are struggling with misinformation.' However, over years of calling out dodgy content, Carpenter has noticed a few recurrent red flags – things you can easily be on the look out for as a conscious consumer of online content. Here are his top three tips for sorting the wheat from the chaff during your next scrolling session. Nothing in fitness is revolutionary If someone online is telling you something is revolutionary, chances are it isn't, especially if their pitch involves you parting with some cash. 'The reason I think this is so important is that, in health and fitness, the things that we know work aren't revolutionary,' Carpenter explains. 'We know that exercise is good, and we know that certain dietary habits like eating fruits and vegetables are good. But people will often make something sound shinier than it is to sell something, and I think that is one of the biggest red flags.' He adds that, if something truly revolutionary was uncovered such as a 'specific diet tip or exercise programme', the likelihood is that one person would not have a monopoly over this information. 'I would be making social media videos about it for free,' Carpenter says. '[People like me are] not trying to hold the best information from you, we're trying to put the best information out.' Beware of 'fear porn' A negativity bias in the human psyche means we're hardwired to pay more attention to negative information than positive. Content creators have cottoned on to this. 'There's a growing trend on social media for something that's described as 'fear porn' – people are being lured in by the things that sound scary,' says Carpenter. 'Rather than saying something is good for you, videos are now saying, 'Never eat this specific ingredient, it's killing you'.' This is his second red flag when trying to spot health and fitness misinformation online. 'A real health and fitness professional would say, 'We know that added sugar should probably make up less than 10 per cent of your diet. That's well-established health advice. If you look at the World Health Organisation, it will often say to keep it to less than 10 per cent because if you consume too much it's linked to things like obesity, weight gain, type-2 diabetes, teeth cavities and so on. 'That's very different to someone saying, 'You can never eat sugar because sugar is killing you'. If people are making things sound really scary all the time, it's often clickbait and a hook. They are trying to grab your attention by making you scared, and I don't think health and fitness advice should be scary.' Show your workings This final tip starts with a social media video making a hyper-specific claim. If someone is doing this, and throwing around scientific-sounding terms as they do so, Carpenter wants to see them substantiate this information with cold, hard facts. 'People who are genuinely scientific will show you what they're talking about,' he says. 'If you're watching my video and I say a food is good or bad for your health, I'll show you the research that I'm citing that from. 'It sounds like it's nerdy, but generally speaking I think people who are trying to educate you should show that they're educating you. They will show you the science they are talking about. It's not about trying to sell you things, it's showing what the research says and putting it on the screen.' In contrast, extreme claims with no substantiation or supporting evidence should set alarm bells ringing. 'You don't have to cite them, but generally speaking I think it's a red flag if someone never references the research they're talking about,' Carpenter concludes. It's generally advisable to take influencer advice with a pinch of salt and to do your own research. Trends on social media will come and go, but when it comes to fitness, the fundamentals are usually the same. This means if someone is selling you a 'hack' or a bypass, with no studies or proof, it's probably too good to be true.
Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Dermot Murnaghan, 67, reveals devastating prostate cancer diagnosis as former Sky News presenter thanks family for 'monumental love and support'
Newsreader Dermot Murnaghan today revealed he has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The broadcaster has said he is 'feeling well' despite the devastating diagnosis. Stage 4 is the most advanced stage cancer, meaning cancerous cells have spread beyond the prostate and into other areas of the body.
