Smoke from Canadian Wildfires Reaches Europe as Fires Rage Across Provinces
Toronto, The Gulf Observer: Plumes of smoke from massive wildfires sweeping across Canada have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reaching Europe, with additional smoke clouds expected to arrive in the coming days, according to satellite data released by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) on Tuesday.
The first plume made landfall in the Mediterranean region on May 18, followed by a larger one that blanketed northwestern Europe on June 1. More transatlantic smoke is anticipated this week, reflecting the sheer scale and intensity of the fires currently burning from British Columbia to Ontario.
More than 17,000 residents in Manitoba have been forced to evacuate, alongside thousands of others in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as wildfires continue to burn out of control across the country.
Mark Parrington, senior scientist at CAMS, highlighted the transatlantic journey of the smoke as “a reflection of the scale of the fires and the impacts they have been having in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.”
Although the smoke plumes are expected to cause hazy skies and vivid red-orange sunsets across parts of Europe, the high altitude of the smoke means surface air quality is unlikely to be significantly affected on the continent.
In contrast, smoke moving southeast across Canada and into the upper Midwest of the United States has led to hazardous air quality conditions in some areas.
As of June 2, wildfires in Canada have scorched an estimated 2.1 million hectares, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Fire danger remains extreme across much of the affected regions due to persistent hot, dry, and windy conditions—weather patterns increasingly associated with human-driven climate change.
CAMS has also reported that Canadian wildfires have released approximately 56 megatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere this year alone—marking the second-highest emissions recorded by early June, just behind the record-setting wildfire season of 2023.
Authorities continue to monitor the situation closely, as conditions remain critical and international impacts of the fires grow.
