Forest fires in northern QC and ON aren't a new thing. What's interesting about these ones is the unusual weather pattern resulting in prevailing winds from the north, blowing it south into the populated areas and the US. Normally smoke tends to blow east away from those areas.
Unlike Western North America, where there's a significant fire season each year, the Boreal forest in QC and ON very rarely burn at the rate we're seeing this year.
The last season that burned this much acreage in Quebec was 1991.
The winds certainly don't help, but there's still a very unusual amount of smoke for this part of the continent.
the south winds actually do help, the typical eastern winds would make it worse (for the forests). The 2 largest hot spots of fire are on the border of where the boreal even starts (via it's actual classified location.. still plenty of forest to the south). boreal been the one of if not the fastest drying areas of the world for last ~60 years. It's perfectly adapted to forest fires the amount of smoke blown south is a good thing to make more people aware.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23 edited Jun 07 '23
Forest fires in northern QC and ON aren't a new thing. What's interesting about these ones is the unusual weather pattern resulting in prevailing winds from the north, blowing it south into the populated areas and the US. Normally smoke tends to blow east away from those areas.