No recess for Canadian wildfires
The ongoing wildfire crisis in Canada has reached unprecedented proportions.
Since the beginning of the 2023 fire season, 5,700 fires have burned an area of approximately 13.7 million hectares, reflecting an increase of 650% above the reference value.
1,054 fires are currently still burning. The most affected area during the last few days is the Northwestern Territory (NW), where Yellowknife, the province's most populous city, has been evacuated as a fire could reach it in the coming hours.
The fires continue to release massive plumes of thick smoke into the atmosphere. This image acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on 17 August shows the smoke from the NW engulfing Greenland's skies.
Accurate air quality forecasts for Canada are provided by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and are available here.
