Canadians love to talk about the weather. It’s one of the first things many of us bring up in conversations. “It’s so cold, I can’t wait for summer” or, “It’s so hot, I can’t wait for the fall.” Something we’re hearing a lot more often is “I’ve never seen anything like this” when speaking about a flooding, wildfire, or extreme heat event.
What’s going on?
Unfortunately, the past few days have brought about a lot of discussions locally about our poor air quality and eerie looking sky, including “I’ve never seen this before in Burlington.” While we’ve seen many news reports on the wildfires in other provinces and in northern Ontario, we have been very fortunate in southern Ontario to not have to deal with out-of-control wildfires, though that’s primarily due to our urbanization and less forest cover (though we have had grass fires in Burlington this season on at least two separate occasions). With the current wind direction from northeast to southwest, we have been smelling wildfire smoke from hundreds of kilometers away making our air quality among the worst in the world.
Wildfires 101
Wildfires need three things: ignition, fuel and dry weather. You might recall when reading or hearing about the fires in Alberta that one of the reasons they were so bad was because they were happening so early in the season, before the ground cover had a chance to ‘green up’ leaving only the dry material on the ground and therefore an excellent source of fuel.
While the total number of fires have been decreasing since the 1980s, due in part to a decline in human caused fires thanks to better education as well as better fire suppression, wildfires now tend to cover a larger area, burning more hectares. The number of what are classified as disastrous wildfires has also increased. Unfortunately this year, Canada is experiencing the worst wildlife season in a century with firefighter support from around the world.
Currently, lightning causes 45 percent of wildfires which will increase due to climate change. For every degree Celsius of warming, lightning strikes are predicted to increase about 12 percent. In addition, the fire season is expanding by starting earlier and ending later.
According to David Phillips, Senior Climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, models for Canada suggest what we’ve seen so far in May and early June could be a dress rehearsal for what we’ll see the rest of the summer, which is anticipated to be warmer than normal.
What can you do to protect your health?
Smoke has negative impacts to your health, especially the very small particles known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5 which is much smaller in diameter than the average strand of human hair.
Many of us check the weather forecast before we plan our day. As part of your routine, be sure to check out your local air quality reading at halton.ca. The Air Quality Health Index or AQHI not only provides an air quality reading, which is updated hourly, but also associated messaging for both the ‘general’ population and the ‘at risk’ population, which is defined as those with heart or lung conditions. In addition, different groups might be more at risk than others such as children, older adults, pregnant women, those exercising or working outdoors and those with pre-existing conditions. Additional information on the Air Quality Health Index and related health messaging is available at airhealth.ca and airqualityontario.com. Specific information on wildfire smoke, air quality and your health is available at canada.ca/wildfire-smoke.
Connection to Burlington’s Climate Plans
Did you know that the City of Burlington has three climate plans currently being implemented which address:
- Reducing emissions from our operations with a goal to be net carbon neutral by 2040 (Corporate Energy and Emissions Management Plan: 2019-2024)
- Reducing emissions from the community with a goal to be net carbon neutral by 2050 (Climate Action Plan)
- Adapting for our warmer, wetter and wilder weather (Climate Resilient Burlington)
For more information about Burlington’s climate plans, please visit burlington.ca/climatechange.
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