I have often said on these pages that we love our American friends. Sure, living above one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world has its challenges, but so many benefits, too. I often kid my American friends when there comes to trade disputes between the United States and Canada, we have the ultimate weapon. Of course, that is always the threat of sending cold Canadian air down to the U.S. in winter during a polar vortex. If there are not guffaws, at least it breaks their attention.
Then came this past week where smoke from eastern Canadian wildfires caused dangerous levels of air pollution in major American cities like New York and Philadelphia.
For eastern Canadians, these smoke-filled days are very strange. However, in Western Canada it is not so strange as we have seen it before. There are often fires in British Columbia and Alberta that send smoke into western Canadian farm country as well as the U.S. Northern Plains.
However, this year as DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick documents in his DTN Ag Weather Forum, precipitation in the greater North American Corn Belt has been below normal caused by a stagnant weather pattern caused by a ridge of high pressure across central Canada. (See his blogs and .) Translate that into the abundance of forests in northern Ontario and Quebec and we've got wildfires.
The images are striking especially from the big East Coast American cities where pollution levels are considered dangerous. In Ontario and Quebec, it's the same especially near the Quebec border where the horizon is masked by the dull curtain of smoke generated only a few 100 miles away. Yesterday on Twitter I couldn't help but feel for a friend of mine who mentioned he couldn't see his grain elevator half a kilometer away. He also said the smoke was causing him headaches.
Here in southwestern Ontario the smoke was not as bad as that, but it was still very evident. Today almost seems like one of those dull January cloudy days but the temperature is about 23 degrees Celsius and there is a sun up there somewhere. We continue to suffer from the drought that Baranick has documented. However, rain is on the way apparently for next week.
That will be a complete game changer for crops in southwestern Ontario if it materializes. Interestingly enough, the Ottawa area has been an epicenter for the smoke in Canada and even though it is always a centre for political hot air you couldn't help here some politicians explaining all of this away because of climate change. Needless to say, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wanted to avoid that saying something about lightning strikes causing fires.
The unfortunate part of all this is you cannot deny the tangible reality of air pollution in this situation. What we have is people being exposed to fine particulate matter which can be highly dangerous when inhaled and can get into the bloodstream in the lungs, possibly causing health problems in the future. Raising the federal government's carbon tax to fight this present danger isn't going to help. Rain and a good stiff wind the other way might.
Source: dtnpf.com
Photo Credit: Pixabay-Mediamodifier
Categories: Illinois, Crops