Watch Canadian #smoke get caught in the circulation of a midlatitude cyclone and blown over the N. Atlantic via #GOES16 Geocolor – prelim. pic.twitter.com/oaGFntMUL6
— Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) August 17, 2017
Scientists have tracked smoke plumes that have circumnavigated the Earth multiple times.
Occurred after takeoff from Williams Lake, BC
Continue reading
In recent weeks a wildfire in northern Yukon Territory on the Alaskan border threatened the Rampart House historic site. It occurred at 67 degrees North Latitude, which is about the same distance from the equator as the fires burning in Greenland.
Rampart House was the location of one of the first encounters of traders, missionaries, and police with the native people of the region. The archaeological resources and 21 historic structures are cooperatively owned and managed by the Yukon Government and the Vuntut Gwichin First Nation.
Doug Cote was assigned to the fire and sent us these photos along with this description:
A number of fires threatened the site over the two week period we were there. Once our trigger points were breached we pulled out our fall back ignition plan which went off like text book. Aerial ignition from above and hand ignition on the ground for close to 2km along the base of the slopes above the site. The area should be safe from fires for a good long while now.
There were a number of large fires burning north of the arctic circle in Alaska and Canada’s north west this summer with higher than average temperatures and higher than average amounts of lightning. It would be real interesting to crunch the numbers and see the total burned area and how it compares to previous years and whether there is any evidence of an upwards trend.
Thanks Doug!
Above: Map showing heat detected by a satellite in southern British Columbia at 2:51 a.m. MDT August 9, 2017.
(Updated at 5 p.m. MDT August 9, 2017)
The wildfire situation in British Columbia has not gotten any better in the last several days. Currently there are 128 active wildfires in the province, with four of them being larger than 50,000 hectares (123,000 acres). The largest, the Hanceville Riske Creek Fire, is getting closer to half a million acres each day.
Since April 1, approximately 591,280 hectares (1,461,082 acres) have burned in 900 fires in BC.
More than 400 additional firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and the US are expected to arrive in BC this week. Other firefighters from Australia have been in the province for a couple of weeks. More than 100 firefighters arrived from Mexico since Saturday of last week. No resources have been ordered or dispatched to Canada through the United States National Interagency Coordination Center, but the Great Lakes Interstate Forest Fire Compact mobilized a crew to Ontario that is now in British Columbia, and Massachusetts sent personnel across the border. Of course the northwestern one-quarter of the United States is pretty busy with their own fires.
Smoke from wildfires in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana has created seriously degraded air quality off and on in those areas, at times reaching the “unhealthy” level according to air quality officials.
40 #NSWRFS members will form part of a 100 strong frontline firefighting team heading to #Canada today to assist with #BCfires. pic.twitter.com/jLH6XErcxP
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 8, 2017
Wind vector map for Elephant Hill fire. Local conditions may vary. From @CWFIS #BCWildfire #Ashcroft #Clinton pic.twitter.com/klEepCGCXL
— Amy Christianson (@ChristiansonAmy) August 9, 2017
Above: Satellite photo showing wildfire smoke in the northwestern United States and British Columbia August 6, 2017. The red dots represent heat.
Above: Satellite photo of smoke from wildfires in the U.S. Northwest and Southern British Columbia, August 5, 2017. The red dots represent heat detected by the satellite.
(Updated at 6:50 p.m. MDT August 5, 2017 to add the more current satellite photo above.)
Smoke from wildfires in Southern British Columbia continues to pour across the border into Washington and other states in the U.S. Northwest. The air quality in Washington is the worst that residents have seen in recent years, reaching unhealthy levels in some areas according to agencies that monitor particulates and other pollutants.
Currently there are 110 active wildfires in British Columbia — four of them are larger than 50,000 hectares (123,000 acres):
Below is a gallery of maps and graphics showing the location of the fires, air quality, and smoke. Click on an image to see a larger version and start a slide show. Captions are in the top-left corner.
[envira-gallery slug=”smoke-fires-air-quality-august-5-2017″]
Above: Satellite photo taken August 2, 2017 showing smoke from some of the wildfires in British Columbia. The red dots represent heat detected by a sensor on the satellite
(Originally published at 9:50 p.m. MDT August 2, 2017)
Firefighters in British Columbia are dealing with over 100 wildfires that are larger than 0.01 hectare. The location for four of the largest can be seen on the map below which shows heat detected by a satellite on Wednesday.
Here are very brief of summaries of four of the largest fires:
The weather forecast for Ashcroft near the Elephant Hill fire looks grim for firefighters — over 100F every day for the next week with the relative humidity around 20 percent or below. It looks better for Williams Lake with highs in the high 80’s and low 90’s with the relative humidity in the mid-20’s.
The fire has been burning near Cache Creek, BC since July 6, 2017.
Continue reading
Above: Tanker 47 (a Convair 580), Tanker 49 (a Convair 580), an F-18, and a couple of fire engines at Whitehouse International Airport, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada June 6, 2017. Photo by Doug Cote.
Doug Cote sent us this photo and said the annual migration of air tankers to Alaska is ongoing. He shot this photo today of an assortment of emergency equipment at Whitehorse.
Some firefighters who fought the 1,500,000-acre Fort McMurray Fire that burned 2,400 homes in Alberta last year also battled respiratory and mental health issues.
Below is an excerpt from a CBC news article:
The University of Alberta study surveyed 355 firefighters and found a “very large proportion” of them complained of respiratory issues including coughing, breathlessness, wheezing and chest tightness in the immediate aftermath of the fire.
“When we saw them later, probably about one in five of those still had problems with their chests that they felt had been caused or made worse by the fire,” said Nicola Cherry, the epidemiologist leading the study.
And they’re battling more than just physical ailments — mental-health issues affect one in six of study participants.
“When we collected this information, it was early days and people may develop bigger issues as time goes forward,” Cherry said.
****
Articles on Wildfire Today tagged Fort McMurray Fire.