SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - Smoke is once again blotting out the sun along the coast. Wildfires that are raging in eastern Canada are sending large plumes of smoke southward into the eastern United States.
This smoke is not just resulting in interesting sunrises and sunsets, but is also causing health problems as air quality levels fall. Today we are experiencing Code Orange to Code Red air quality levels, which means unhealthy and sensitive people should limit time outdoors. Dave Cunningham, who was stopping into Lewes after a recent trip to Ocean City, was feeling the impacts of the smoke.
“The air is pretty thick, you can even smell it a little bit,” explained Cunningham.
The current episode of smoky conditions, from Quebec, here on Delmarva are not the first bout of issues that have been seen this year. Just last week, Delmarva had to deal with dangerous air quality as a result of smoke from New Jersey and Nova Scotia wildfires. A few weeks ago, wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia sent smoke billowing our way.
Canada is seeing the fastest start to wildfire season in recent memory. Courtesy Canadian Wildland Fire Information System
Canada has seen one of their fastest starts to wildfire season in recent memory and the peak of the season is still months away. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and The Nature Conservancy, says climate change is to blame for this active wildfire season as Canada has seen an exceptionally warm and dry start to the year.
“This is actually something that we do expect to increase in a warming climate, where places that were much less susceptible to fires, high fire risk historically, may become so at least occasionally in the future,” explained Swain
The smoky skies and poor air quality is an example of how climate change impacts in one part of the world can have downstream impacts on the health and well-being of people in different parts of the world.
Delmarva will continue to see smoke filled skies and poor air quality through Thursday. As wildfire season continues to rage in Canada, more episodes of smoke are likely to impact our region.