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Canadian Forest Fires Bring Bad Air Quality To Parts of The USA This Weekend [1]
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Date: 2025-05-30
For People living in the United States from Minneapolis, MN to Detroit, MI and South, to Washington, DC, your air quality is slated to get a lot worse this weekend due to the fires plaguing the Canadian Prairies. These prairie fires could cause the Air Quality Index to go as high as RED which means levels exceeding 150 and unhealthy for all living creatures. Wildfire smoke is extremely toxic according to studies (the Guardian didn’t list these) and that there is no known safe level of exposure to this smoke, which can be 10x more toxic than smog and soot. The health experts are asking the Public to wear a N95 or similar mask if you are going to be outside and to purchase a portable air filter for your home.
According to The Guardian, “Government Forecasters for Canada are predicting a well above average fire season for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia for the remainder of the Spring and Summer.”
Satellite Images from the Prairies are showing Extreme Fire Behavior with Pyrocumulus Clouds which were a rarity in this area until recently.
The Guardian, The BBC and the CBC have been reporting on these fires all week long and I will try to summarize their findings. The CBC had a story on the fast moving fires that started in early May because of a long drought in the region. There is also a heat pocket that formed over the prairies from the Southern USA that spread northward bringing warm dry temps and a southerly wind pushing this condition northward. Behind this is a cold front that will spark lightening and wind and has fire crews really worried as there looks to be no appreciable rain forecasted.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba will be hot (30 degrees C) over the weekend and this zone of hot, dry air will extend eastward to Southern Manitoba and Northern Ontario creating more fire danger for those areas as well as extreme air quality alerts for those areas, depending on the wind direction.
It looks like the fire season in Canada started earlier than normal due to Climate Change.
On Wednesday, Manitoba’s Premier, Wab Kinew informed the news media that, “The Canadian Armed Forces are being deployed to Manitoba to help move residents and fire fight...17,000 people were told to evacuate the area.” Since there are no safe roads that people can drive on in this province, they are being airlifted out along with the livestock as well. The City of Winnipeg will host most of the evacuees. There are videos of firefighters running for their lives as the woods exploded in flame around them.
On Thursday, Saskatchewan’s Premier, Scot Moe declared a State of Emergency as 14 fires rage uncontrollably in the Province. Firefighters from across Canada have been asked to pitch in and help.
“More than 166 fires are actively burning across Canada “ according to the Canadian Interagency Fire Forest Centre. “84 are deemed out of Control with major blazes in the Provences of Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia.”
In Northern Manitoba, the two largest fires are the Bird River Fire and the Border Fire and both remain completely uncontained. 200,000 hectares have burned so far and it looks to be a very busy fire season.
In Saskatchewan, First Nations People have been very affected by these fires with whole communities evacuated and/or trapped by road closures die to the unsafe conditions. There is drone footage of cabins being consumed by towering flames.
Wildfires are also burning in Alberta’s Oil Sands area, which have disrupted production and forced evacuations this week.
And in another part of the world but part of the Tropic of Cancer Latitude, the melting Birch Glacier in Switzerland, flattened the small town of Blatten, casting 300 citizens from their homes (with one deemed missing). “Climate Change is hastening the melting of these mountain glaciers and the permafrost that holds these mountains together. The Swiss glaciers could be gone by the end of the century if temps are not kept at the 1.5 degrees C pre-industrial threshold.”
This glacial collapse unleashed a huge dust storm as well that blanketed the area. The mayor of this small alpine village, Matthais Bellwald, had tears in his eyes as he talked about the event and promised to rebuild. Even though people were evacuated days before the event, many may never be able to return to their lands due to the destruction that this glacial collapsed caused. This is not the first event, nor will it be the last. But I am saddened by the loss of those quaint little villages that dot those mountainous areas and the culture and way of life they had sustained for so many years.
So, we are witnessing two very different, but equally cataclysmic climate events happening simultaneously. I fear that more of these kinds of things will happen and because they are coming fast and furious, the media won’t be able to keep up and keep us informed. This will also create more climate refugees as people are pushed from their homes.
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