Canada continues to burn. After the province of Alberta, in the west of the country, where several hundred thousand hectares of forests have been reduced to ashes, it is the turn of Quebec to ignite. Out of a total of 400 homes currently identified in Canada, nearly 150 are now devastating the "beautiful province".
In the most affected area, at the crossroads of the Laurentides, Mauricie, Lanaudière and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions, northeast of Ottawa and Quebec City, more than 10,000 residents were evacuated because of the proximity of the homes, but also and especially because of the air that had become unbreathable. "High concentrations of fine particles" will lead to "poor air quality" for "a few more days", warns Environment Canada, the Canadian equivalent of our Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Read also"A scary time": why are Canada's giant fires out of control?
The intensity of the blazes is the cause of very long plumes of smoke which, under the effect of air movements in the atmosphere, extend over thousands of kilometers. "Under the effect of an active depression over northeastern Canada, a northwesterly flow affects the northeastern part of the United States, bringing down the large plume of Canadian smoke over the New York area," observes Cyrille Duchesne, meteorologist at Météo Consult. An ochre mist and an orange sun concern the megalopolis with reduced visibility and very poor air quality. »
VIDEO. New York trapped by smoke coming straight out of Canada
Countless photos and videos published on social networks this Thursday, June 8, show a city of New York under a kind of orange filter unprecedented, skyscrapers and a Statue of Liberty plunged in a sandy fog and residents complaining of a particularly stale air and causing for some coughs and difficulty breathing. The US Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) had to slow down air travel and cancel some flights because visibility was too uncertain at altitude. More than 100 million U.S. citizens, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are affected by air quality alerts, from the Chicago area to Atlanta, further south.
The plume of smoke could cross the Atlantic...
The plume is expected to further disrupt the lives of Americans and especially those in New York State throughout the weekend, according to forecasts from Weather Canada, which does not expect rain until Tuesday on the burning areas. Calculations of the most likely trajectory of these fumes in the coming days - made thanks to images from satellites feeding the European Copernicus Earth observation base - give identical results. And if the fires do not decrease in intensity, there is a probability that the plume will hit the Portuguese coast after crossing the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.
This Thursday, a hundred blazes are estimated "out of control" according to the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire (Sopfeu). The scale of the fires is such that the fire services are physically and humanly unable to cope. At most, with the means available, they can manage "about 40 fires at the same time," said Quebec Premier François Legault. The arrival of international reinforcements is eagerly awaited. Several hundred Americans were able to lend a hand to their Canadian colleagues today, and nearly 300 from France, Portugal and Spain are scheduled to land Saturday morning.
