According to CNN, the smoke from hundreds of wildfires blazing in Canada has spread as far as Norway.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has already enveloped sections of the United States, putting 75 million people under air quality alert. However, plumes of smoke have spread from Canada to Greenland, Iceland, and Norway during the previous several days.
Scientists at Norway’s Climate and Environmental Research Institute (NILU) used highly sensitive detectors to detect the rise in smoke and then used forecast modelling to determine its source.
A senior scientist at NILU, Nikolaos Evangeliou, said that people in Norway may be able to smell and even notice the smoke as a light haze but, unlike parts of the US that have seen hazardous pollution, they should experience no health impacts.
“The fires travelling from such long distances arrive very diluted,” Evangeliou told CNN.
The plume is expected to spread across Europe over the coming days. But it’s unlikely that people will be able to smell or notice the smoke, Evangeliou said.
It’s not unusual for wildfire smoke to travel long distances. “Smoke from wildfires such as those in Canada is injected at high altitudes thus staying in the atmosphere longer and able to travel over far distances,” he said.
Smoke from California’s record-breaking wildfires was spotted on Svalbard, a Norwegian island located far north of the Arctic Circle, in 2020.
The smoke has a harmful influence on the environment. Moving wildfire smoke puts soot on the snow and ice, darkening the white surface and allowing it to absorb more heat. According to CNN, this hastens Arctic warming.
