Wildfire smoke pours across America bringing haze from coast to coast
A noticeable drop in air quality into moderate ranges stretched across the Plains and Midwest on Thursday morning, with the worst air quality in the inland Northwest and particularly in eastern Oregon, where multiple "megafires" have burned more than 100,000 acres each.
Hundreds of wildfires across Canada and the U.S. West pouring smoke from coast to coast
Hazy, smoky skies are becoming the norm across much of the western U.S. and Canada with some smoke drifting into the Northeast.
NEW YORK – Hundreds of wildfires burning across the western U.S. and Canada are spewing dense smoke that is being carried hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away through the Plains and Midwest, all the way to the Northeast.
The smoke is, at best, leading to hazy skies across wide swaths of the nation and, at worst, degrading air quality.
(FOX Weather)
WILDFIRE SMOKE TRACKER: SMOKE PLUME FORECAST MAPS, AIR QUALITY READINGS AND MORE
"The Canadian smoke is moving into our country, and then we have our own issue from smoke, from the fires that are burning out west," says FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin.
A noticeable drop in air quality into moderate ranges stretched across the Plains and Midwest on Thursday morning, with the worst air quality in the inland Northwest and particularly in eastern Oregon, where multiple "megafires" have burned more than 100,000 acres each.
(FOX Weather)
EVACUATIONS EXPAND AS WILDFIRE BURNING NEAR CHICO, CALIFORNIA, EXPLODES IN SIZE
A smoky haze was even washing out the skies around New York City on Thursday, more than 2,000 miles away from the fires.
Smoke will continue to reduce air quality across the central states for the days to come. Across the East, a reinforcing push of smoke will dive south out of Canada on Friday, which may be more noticeable compared to Thursday’s haze as there will be less cloud cover, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
"For Canada, they have over 523 active wildfires that are larger than 100 acres – that's 7.1 million acres," Merwin said. "The acreage that we're burning here in the U.S. is about 2 million. So you add that up between what's burning in our country, what's burning in Canada – it is so much; we're putting a ton of smoke up in the atmosphere."
(FOX Weather)
With the fires showing no signs of stopping across the West, there will continue to be bouts of smoke sent east in the coming days and weeks.
OVER A DOZEN HOMES SCORCHED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE SPARKED BY FIREWORKS
Nearly 90 fires are burning across the West that have scorched at least 100 acres, with nearly 22,000 firefighters battling the blazes.