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Why are parts of North America covered in smoke from wildfires in Canada?

In recent years, orange-hued skylines, wildfire smoke, and scorched forests have become commonplaces in North America as global warming has 'contributed to massive forest fires. These fires are primarily in the north of Canada, which is home to some of?the world's largest intact forests.

Canada has experienced more wildfires this year than in the previous two years. The area that has been burned is also higher than the average for the last 10 years.

Check out these facts about recent wildfires and smoke.

Why does Canada have so many wildfires?

Canada, which is the second largest country in the world by area, contains nearly a 10th of all the forest land on the planet and 24% of its boreal forests. Many are not accessible by road or inhabited.

Forest fires are an important part of nature that helps to eliminate pests and unhealthy shrubbery. In recent years the size and intensity have increased.

Climate change is causing temperatures to rise, resulting in drier forest. Fires spread more quickly in drier forests. Lightning or campfires can start fires in more populated regions.

Mike Flannigan is a professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia who specializes in wildland fires. He noted that the area of land burned has nearly quadrupled across Canada since the 1970s. He said that warmer temperatures have extended the wildfire season, and more lightning has also caused fires.

WHAT HAPPENED OVER THE LAST WEEK? Smoke follows the wind as?fires grow and more forest is burned. Toronto experienced the worst air quality in the world earlier this week due to fires from northern and western Ontario, as well as northern Minnesota. Then it spread to New York and Washington. Detroit and Chicago had the worst air quality by Friday.

Can the fires be stopped? Although some fires cannot be avoided, the government is trying to protect their communities by closing forests to prevent fires caused by humans, using non-flammable materials in high-risk areas and being more prepared.

What has Canada done so far? The federal government has increased funding to fight wildfires. This includes C$316.7 (or $227 million) over five years for aerial firefighting capability and C$47.8 for Parks Canada's?National Fire Management Program. Ontario spent C$271,000,000 on emergency firefighting during 2025-26. This was more than its budget of C$135,000,000. The budget for 2026-2027 is C$150 millions.

WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE? Experts and politicians started calling for a National Response Organization after Canada's largest wildfire season in terms of area burned, 2023. These calls increased after fires in the year 2024 destroyed a third of Jasper, a tourist town.

Canada is the lone Group of Seven nation without a federal agency dedicated to fighting wildfires. The provinces are responsible for a large part of firefighting.

The Canadian Senate released a report in June 2026 that proposed funding for a "national fleet" of modern firefighting planes, as well as other measures.

The report noted that wildfires have become a crisis, citing the area burned in the past few years. The federal Office of Emergency Management and Community Resilience announced that it is evaluating recommendations for wildfire response and possible creation of a federal agency to manage emergency situations. The leasing of 10 firefighting planes is one way it has boosted the capacity of provincial and territorial firefighting agencies to combat severe wildfires. Canada has approximately 126,000 firefighters, 90,000 of whom are volunteers, who work for towns, villages, and cities. Ken McMullen is the president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. He said that only 3,000-5,000 firefighters in Canada are trained to fight wildland fires. McMullen stated that a centralized approach could help with coordinating, training, and moving equipment and firefighters across the country if needed.

What are some other areas with wildfires? According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the United States also has an above-average year for fires, with 3.7 millions acres burning year-to date in 2026, compared to a 10-year-average of 2.7million acres. According to the U.S. Drought monitor, fires are burning more intensely and consuming more land in the U.S. West after a record low winter snowpack caused drought conditions to spread to 90% of the region.

According to NIFC, the United States had?40,000 wildfires in its first half of this year. This is well above the 10-year average, which was around 31,000 at this time. A wildfire that burned an area as large as San Francisco in northeastern Spain forced thousands of people to flee. This summer, there have been nearly 20 reported wildfires in England and Wales. A historic forest near Paris has also burned and turned the skies black. (Reporting from Nivedita Balu, Toronto; additional reporting by Andrew Hay. Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Deepa Babington and Caroline Stauffer)

(source: Reuters)