REGIONAL— Residents of the North Country can expect to see more smoky skies this summer if the seasonal forecast offered by Environment Canada on Tuesday holds true.
A highly active spring fire season in Canada has pumped enormous amounts of smoke across the Upper Midwest, particularly to northern Minnesota, severely impacting air quality in the region.
That trend is only expected to intensify as the summer season progresses, as climate forecasters in Canada see a strong trend towards warmer-than-normal conditions across virtually all of Canada, with intensifying fire risks through August.
Some of the largest fires still burning in Canada are located relatively close to Minnesota. One of the blazes, identified only as Fire EA061, is located east-northeast of Winnipeg, near the Manitoba-Ontario border, less than 100 miles from the Minnesota border. That fire has already consumed over 218,000 hectares (nearly 540,000 acres) and remains out of control although rains last weekend have dampened fire activity over the past few days.
A roughly 50,000-hectare blaze, dubbed KEN_FIRE_020, is located just west of Kenora and is located just about 30 miles north of Minnesota’s Northwest Angle.
One of the largest fires in Manitoba, in the western part of the province, has consumed more than 300,000 hectares and prompted evacuation orders across a wide area, including the entire city of Flin Flon.
As of the end of May, Canada has seen about three times as many acres burned as in a typical spring fire season, according to Bill Merryfield, with Environment Canada. As bad as the spring fire season has been, however, Canadian forecasters see worsening conditions as the summer continues.
While recent rains and cooler temperatures have lessened fire risk across most of Canada, a condition expected to continue through June, fire risk is expected to increase to above average by July from Manitoba to the west and reach the highest risk category from the Minnesota border to the west coast. If so, Minnesotans can expect to experience many more smoky days this summer.
Already, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued air quality alerts across northern Minnesota on more than a dozen days this spring.