Wharfie~
At the moment, we're still fine here in my part of Nova Scotia. Most of the fires in this province are either out or under control. We didn't actually get much smoke here in the Annapolis Valley at any time during those fires.
However, things are pretty bad in Quebec and Ontario. I'm hearing from quite a few friends "back home" in the Ottawa Valley where I am from, that the air is thick with smoke from the firest burning out of control in northwestern Quebec. That is just over the border between Ontario and Quebec. This forest fire smoke map gives a pretty good idea of just how bad it is, and how extensive the smoke is, and where it's going. I have friends in the northern U.S. - Minnesota, etc.. who have been posting photos of the bad smoke. It's pretty much unprecedented. I do remember one summer when the smoke from forest fires burning in northern Ontario was visible in the Ottawa Valley -- that was probably about 20 or 25 years ago -- but it was nothing at all like what I am seeing in the photos my friends are posting. One friend posted photos this morning -- that you couldn't really see the sun very well through the haze and he is probably about 300 miles from where the fires are burning. Friends who live right in the city of Ottawa say that the smell of it is even in their apartments, and that is also from fires more than 300 miles away. Just crazy.
To me, the scary thing is that "fire season" is more something you expect after the really hot weather in mid-to-late July. However, so much has already burnt this spring. If this turns out to be a hot, dry summer, I can't even imagine how bad this could get.
Anyhow, at the moment, the smoke isn't coming here. The weather over the Atlantic ocean is managing to hold the smoke back from coming here.
~croc |
