Watch the video: Thousands of kilometers away – wildfire smoke from Canada reaches Europe.
This glowing sunset in Vigo, Spain has a secret. Smoke particles in the air make the red component in sunlight appear particularly strong. The special feature: This smoke comes from forest fires on the Canadian east coast, thousands of kilometers away. At the beginning of the week, the particle cloud reached the west coast of Spain. In the coming days it could also be noticeable further north in Europe. According to the European Atmosphere Monitoring Service Kopernikus, the smoke will probably stay in higher layers of the air, and an impairment of the air quality on the ground is unlikely. “But we don’t know how much of it stays in the atmosphere. I think it’s a longer-term process.” And then, of course, there are the enormous amounts of climate-damaging greenhouse gases caused by the fires. “We estimate from our data sets that from the start of the year through June 26 or so, the fires in Canada emitted an estimated 160 megatons of carbon into the atmosphere, which is already Canada’s highest annual release.” The previous record was 140 megatons in 2014. The wildfire season in Canada started unusually early this year. It usually peaks in late July or August. Several provinces between the east and west coasts of Canada have been affected by the hundreds of fires. According to authorities, around 76,000 square kilometers of land have already been burned.