Toronto and Montreal air still among the worst globally
Canadian wildfires continue to impact air quality both in Canada and the U.S., IQAIR's NA Division CEO Glory Dolphin Hammes joins CTV to explain the effects.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
26 minutes ago
- CBC
Calm wildfire season in Quebec can't keep the smoke away
Social Sharing The air quality has finally improved after several days of wildfire smoke hanging over much of southern Quebec. Montreal, along with several other cities in the province, were dealt an air quality advisory starting Saturday and clearing up Monday evening. But this year, the smoke causing the poor air quality isn't coming from within the province but rather from the fires raging in the Prairies. "Fires that were ignited in the month of May are still burning, some of them are still burning," said Yan Boulanger, research scientist in forest ecology at Natural Resources Canada. "There are several fires that are above 100,000 hectares, some of them are above 500,000 hectares." He said these fires have an "exceptional" size and are shrouding many other areas of the country in a veil of smoke. WATCH | Air quality alerts issued across Canada: Wildfire smoke prompts air quality alerts across Canada 2 days ago Millions of Canadians were warned to limit their time outdoors on Sunday with wildfire smoke hanging in the air from B.C. to Quebec, with parts of the North and U.S. also under air quality warnings. 3 worst wildfire seasons in a row While Quebec is seeing a rather tame wildfire season, this year is still gearing up to be another intense season for other parts of Canada. So far, 2025 has seen wildfires consume 6.5 million hectares. Last year the number totalled 5.3 million, and in 2023 — Canada's worst wildfire season on record — a little over 16 million hectares burned. "The thing that is quite exceptional right now is that we had three years in a row with very, very high fire activity in Canada," said Boulanger. The three most active fire seasons since 1995 have been recorded between 2023 and 2025, he said. While the fires in 2023 spread across the country, making the season especially devastating, the fire activity this year is concentrated within the Prairies, British Colombia and western Ontario, he said. Once wildfire smoke is up in the air, its particles can remain there for a long time and travel long distances depending on the wind circulation, said Alexandra Cournoyer, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). "So even if the fires are more to the west and the Prairies region, depending on the wind, it can blow all the way to other provinces, including Quebec," she said That was the case for the smoke causing Montreal's latest advisory. The city has spent five days under air quality alerts so far this year. Last year, that number was zero, and in 2023, Montreal was under air quality advisories for 19 days between April and November, according to ECCC. While Quebec is seeing significant smoke, it's had very few of its own fires this year. This past July saw the lowest number of fires recorded over the past 10 years, according to the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu, or SOPFEU. A 'quiet' season for Quebec As of Tuesday, there are less than five small active wildfires in the province, according to SOPFEU, including in the Mauricie, the Montérégie and the Outaouais. Two others are also being observed in the Côte-Nord. The province has seen around 170 fires so far this year, which is more than 200 fewer than the 10-year average, according to SOPFEU. In 2023, over 4.5 million hectares of forest burned in Quebec, compared to 3,000 hectares so far this year. "It has been a rather quiet season in the province of Quebec and that is mainly due to the precipitation and the weather that we've had for many portions of the province," said Mélanie Morin, spokesperson for SOPFEU. Regular rain and a lack of drought conditions are making this season much calmer than in the past. Prevention also seems to be helping, according to Boulanger. "We still have a lot and too much human-caused fire, but those human-caused fires ... are significantly decreasing since a few decades," he said. It's also important to learn from these intense wildfire seasons, said Boulanger. That means adapting our infrastructure, learning how to better manage evacuations and studying the health risks associated with wildfire smoke exposure, he said.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Southern Sask. sets smoke hours record as wildfires continue to burn
WATCH: Southern Saskatchewan is well on its way to breaking the smoke hour record for this fire season. Jacob Carr reports. Those across southern Saskatchewan have had to contend with increasingly smoky days as wildfires continue to burn in the province's north. Those who believe this fire season may be the worst in recent memory for smoke – may be right. The northern wildfires aren't the only culprit though, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). 'What we've been looking at is a lot of smoke from fires not only in north central Saskatchewan, which has been bringing a lot of the smoke that we have been seeing recently,' ECCC scientist Christy Climenhaga told CTV News. 'There's also been quite a bit of smoke this summer so far from Alberta and into Manitoba.' As a result, smoke has been an issue Canada-wide, and that's especially true in Regina. Just last month, 109 smoke hours were recorded in Regina, making it the smokiest month on record since the start of smoke hours data collection in 1953. A smoke hour is recorded when smoke has obscured visibility to less than six miles. 'This summer has definitely been different with the smoke,' Regina resident Jeanine Hackl explained. 'I'm trying not to pay attention to it too much, but I can definitely feel the heaviness on my lungs once I'm doing physical activity and things like that.' Murray Kyle, another Regina resident, isn't letting the smoke stop him from going out for walks with his dog, but he admits that he has never seen anything like this year's wildfires – or the resulting smoke. 'Oh, they are terrible, I don't remember them ever being in the news when I was growing up or anything like experiencing this,' he said. Furthermore, ECCC says that April through October has the potential to be the smokiest on record for the entire season in Southern Sask. 'We have 215 hours of smoke as of yesterday. That's second place to 2013 which had 263 hours, but that was all the way until October,' Climenhaga added. 'So, we'll be having to see where this season stacks up when all is said and done.'
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
ADVERTISEMENT Regina Watch CTV Yorkton Web News Aug. 5, 2025 WATCH: CTV Yorkton Web News with Lee Jones and Weather with Sabeen Ahmad.
CTV Yorkton Web News Aug. 5, 2025 WATCH: CTV Yorkton Web News with Lee Jones and Weather with Sabeen Ahmad.
