Canadian wildfires 2024: Is another smoky summer in store for Columbus and Ohio?
Last year, wildfires in Canada burned over 18.4 million hectares of land, according to NASA. A hectare is equal to around 2.5 acres, or close to two and a half football fields worth of land, multiplied by 18.4 million.
These blazes produced a lot of smoke—so much that it turned the sky over New York City orange and sent the air quality in The Big Apple, Washington D.C. and Detroit plummeting to be the worst in the world, USA Today reported.
In Columbus, the smoke created "unhealthy" air conditions for the first time since 2003. On a typical day, the city averages an air quality score of 37, or "good," meaning the air poses little to no health risks, according to data from IQAir.
On June 27 and June 28 last year—when the air quality became "unhealthy"—the city's score was 154.
Just a few weeks prior, the air in Columbus was deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups as a smoky haze descended on the city June 7 and 8.
And less than a month after the air quality alert at the end of June, the haze returned on July 17, again making the air unhealthy for sensitive groups.
It's been almost a year since then, and the Canadian wildfires are raging again.
Will Columbus have wildfire smoke again?
So far, the Canadian wildfires aren't raging anywhere close to their 2023 levels, Richard Carr, a fire research analyst with the Canadian Forest Service, told the Dispatch.
"It won't be identical to 2023. So, we're expecting a different outcome (with) different climate conditions. The La Niña (is) most likely developing over the summer. We'll probably get different precipitation patterns than we had in 2023," Carr said.
The leading cause of 2023's raging wildfires and smoke was a drought that started in summer 2022. But this year, Canada's eastern provinces—which are most likely to send smoke down to Ohio—will likely have enough rain to "knock back" drought conditions, Carr said.
The country's largest current fires are in the western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Severe drought conditions could persist, paving the way for large and active fires, Carr said.
But smoke from these western fires is much less likely to affect Columbus, and even smoke that does reach Ohio will likely be dispersed and high in the atmosphere, away from people's airways, Carr said.
If smoke from those western fires did reach Columbus and stayed low to the ground, it would be "unusual," Carr said.
"I can't say it won't (happen), but it would be a little unusual," he said.
The intensity of the Canadian wildfires isn't the only factor that leads to smoky conditions in Ohio; specific weather conditions also have to exist to move the smoke south.
Namely, a stagnant, low-pressure system in the New England region or a stagnant, high-pressure system in the Great Plains region could blow smoke toward Ohio, Carr said.
Dispatch reporter Chad Murphy contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Canadian wildfires 2024: Will Columbus, Ohio have a smoky summer?
