29 June 2015

Smoke From Canada Fires Turns Skies Orange Across the Plains

Posted by Dan Satterfield

This view from the NASA Terra Satellite shows the dense smoke from the fires in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan now extending into Missouri.

This view from the NASA Terra Satellite shows the dense smoke from the fires in Northern Alberta and Saskatchewan now extending into Missouri and Oklahoma. Click for larger version.

Raging wildfires in Western Canada have spread smoke over much of the northern/central U.S. this evening. The plume of smoke now extends over 2000 km, and it will likely move into the Eastern U.S. over the next few days, with the summer blue skies turning a milky white. You can see what the smoke looks like from Fargo, ND here. Very dry conditions coupled with recent extreme heat have caused the fires to become quite large.

The 60 Day rainfall across Western Canada has been way below average, as the map from Agricultural Canada shows:

 

pr_60_av_s_e

Some good news: The rain chances will rise and temperatures will drop over the next 3 days, and this should allow firefighters to get better control of the fires.