With the summer season around the corner, the extreme heat is already beginning. Extreme heat indefinitely causes harm to our environment, and it has already significantly impacted Canada and now the United States.  

Canada has been experiencing what may be the worst wildfire season, and with many wildfires across the country,  an immense amount of smoke has blown into the United States. New York City and many other cities woke up to a sky colored with a dark orange haze. This led health officials to send warnings to millions of Americans. 

Many people are concerned with how this will affect their summer. Christine Wiedinmyer, an atmospheric chemist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, quotes, “I am concerned about what this means for the rest of the season… We’re only in June—early June. And so there’s a possibility we could be in for a smokey summer across the country.” 

However, even though we are experiencing massive amounts of smokey weather and color-changing skies, the chief of forecast operations at the U.S National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, Greg Carbin, quotes, “The smoke is very, very tricky as far as trajectory forecasts for a longer term, as we go into summer and the jet stream weakens across the continental United States, it’s likely we’ll see a slow diminishing of the problems we’re seeing with the smoke from Canada.”

In conclusion, yes, the fires may continue, but there may be a chance for Americans to have a great summer still. The best thing we can do as a country is to wait patiently, and summer will come. With these forecasts, the best thing to do as a society is to reduce air pollution. Click here to read about how to improve your indoor air-quality. 

Sources: 

Bartels, M. (2023, June 7). How long will wildfire smoke last, and where will it spread?. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-will-wildfire-smoke-last-and-where-will-it-spread/ 

Murray, C. (2023, June 8). New York City’s smoke-filled air-caused by Canadian fires-explained. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/06/07/new-york-citys-smoke-filled-air-caused-by-canadian-fires-explained/?sh=4e6c3b944b61