Canadian wildfire smoke impacts U.S. air quality

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter explains the current fires and smoke creeping in from Canada and Mexico into the U.S.

Transcript

00:00 Canadian wildfire smoke is creating unhealthy air in the central US. Smoke from Canadian wildfires

00:06 is back and it's spreading over part of the northern United States and could spread farther

00:11 throughout the area during the week. Until this past weekend, smoke from the western Canadian

00:16 fires have been confined to Canada. All right, joining me right now is AccuWeather chief

00:20 meteorologist Jonathan Porta. You know, Jon, our long-range department, by the way,

00:24 did forecast that, listen, the Canadian wildfire season, which was huge last year, although this

00:30 year wasn't going to be as big, we did project a robust season and we're already having problems

00:36 in western Canada. We sure did. It didn't take any time to get going there with long-term drought

00:42 persisting across parts of northwest Canada and that's led to some big fires already early on.

00:49 And of course, while most of the most imminent and most significant health impacts from that smoke

00:55 are confined to the area near these fires up and way up in Alberta, the smoke can sometimes be

01:01 transported thousands of miles away into the United States like we saw last year as well.

01:06 Jon, we're also dealing with some problems with fires in Central America and with the southerly

01:13 flow we've seen so far this week out ahead of our trough in California here. We have some problems

01:19 along the Gulf Coast with some smoke as well. Just like we're having some issues with fires in Canada

01:25 bringing that smoke down to the United States, also from the south some big fires where drought

01:29 has also been a big problem and warmth across Mexico. Some big fires near Mexico City and then

01:35 also the Yucatan Peninsula and that's resulting in these winds from the south transporting that

01:41 smoke mostly at a high altitude in the atmosphere. That's where the health impacts can be limited,

01:47 but at times some of this can get down near the ground too. Yeah, and if you take a look at the

01:51 AQI across the country though, all in all, Jon, it's a little better than it was earlier in the

01:57 week. A lot of green on the map, but there's that area from Texas toward the Dakotas where you see a

02:01 little yellow where it's moderate. That's right, and that's the lingering impacts here across the

02:06 central plains of some of that smoke that came down last weekend, of course, caused all kinds of

02:12 poor air quality across Minnesota and including the Minneapolis area. Some of that lingers in the

02:17 plains and then we're going to watch to the south here because that's where the bigger problems with

02:22 poor air quality from that smoke coming up from Mexico will be found over the coming days.

02:27 You know, oftentimes I use this map, our energy map, to show you where storms are strengthening,

02:32 but they could also show wind flow. Very helpful when you're trying to track smoke.

02:36 Sure is, and the first aspect we're looking at is look at there's a lot of west-east flow

02:41 across the northern tier of the United States near the border, so that's going to keep a lot

02:45 of the smoke from the Canadian fires, at least in the short term, contained to the north.

02:50 But to the south, we're going to see more flow out of the southwest and west-southwest,

02:55 and while we're going to be dealing with heavy rain threats here, we've been talking about that

02:59 here this morning along the Gulf Coast over the coming days, when it's not pouring, well,

03:04 we're going to be dealing with some concerns for smoke in some areas and haze in the atmosphere.

03:09 Let's take a look at the IQ of the forecast here, John, as we go forward here. There's the Thursday

03:13 and there's what you were talking about, that westerly wind kind of cleaning things out across

03:18 the upper Midwest, but problems with some yellow there from Houston toward Jacksonville on Thursday

03:24 and probably so on Friday as well. Correct, and also that will linger into the weekend as well,

03:30 and again, especially in south Texas, places like Brownsville and near the Rio Grande,

03:35 that's where some of those health impacts can be amplified when that smoke gets closer to the

03:39 ground, and that's the risk for people to breathe that in and result in some of those health issues,

03:44 especially for people with respiratory conditions and the young and the elderly.

03:48 All right, really quickly here, because I'm getting the evil eye from Ari, we're taking

03:52 your time, the IQ of the forecast, the long-range department, a couple of areas we're concerned

03:57 about wildfires this summer. We'll have to watch for smoke at times across the northern tier,

04:02 from the northern plains, the Great Lakes, and even the northeast, because there's going to be

04:07 some fires across parts of southern Canada we're concerned about, and then also look at all this

04:11 red up here in northwest Canada, though it's thousands of miles away from the eastern part

04:17 of the country. Sometimes when that flow goes around to the north and west, there can be smoke

04:21 issues. And of course, we've had so many fires so far across this Texas panhandle already,

04:25 that's why we have that red there. All right, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter,

04:29 John, thanks again for joining us.

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