[imagesource:twitter/mikehudema]

Deep wafts of wildfire smoke in Canada have been drifting around the region, swallowing whole cities in a thick, yellow haze.

You don’t even need much of an imagination to see how these scenes look and feel like something straight out of an apocalypse movie – probably because, to a larger degree than we are willing to admit, these wildfires are very much intensified by the climate crisis.

It is wildfire season in Canada, but this year, the fires have already burned over 9,4 million acres (3,8 million hectares) across the country, forcing 120 000 people from their homes, which is a record high, per Yahoo! News.

Environment Canada (EC) has issued a special air quality statement for most of southern Ontario, stating that there are high levels of air pollution due to smoke from forest wildfires.

“Smoke plumes from forest fires in Quebec and northeastern Ontario may result in deteriorated air quality through most of this week,” the statement reads. “Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour.”

Folks in Canada have been blown away by the doom clouds, to say the least:

🔥 #Ottawa on May 20th
vs today, June 6th

I’ve never experienced anything like this… #onstorm #smoke #wildfire #ClimateCrisis #EnvironmentDay

📸 Mathieu Villeneuve on FB pic.twitter.com/S32edWxi0E

— Natalie (@cest_nat_) June 6, 2023

Let’s not forget that somewhere a fire is burning:

A red sun and sky. The smell of smoke is everywhere in Montreal today. There are more than 160 actives fires burning in the province. #smogwarning #forestfires #redsun #redsky #smoke pic.twitter.com/mkkGnKNSQG

— David Skinner (@DavidFSkinner) June 6, 2023

The whole city in smoke #Ottawa #forestfires pic.twitter.com/2EHpNRm4LR

— David Baluku (@IamKingD10) June 6, 2023

Stop going outside, guys:

@talonredskye Fires are spreading fast, the smoke turned the sky orange… 🙃 #fyp #fire #smoke #wildfire #Ontario #Canada #nature #sky ♬ original sound – TalonRedskye

Environment Canada warned those working/frolicking outdoors:

…those with “lung disease (such as asthma) or heart disease, older adults, children, pregnant people, and people who work outdoors are at higher risk of experiencing health effects caused by wildfire smoke.”

The smoke seems to be bellowing south, freaking out folks in America, too. On Wednesday, schools across the East Coast cancelled outdoor activities, airline traffic slowed and millions of US citizens were urged to stay indoors, Reuters reported:

The U.S. National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for virtually the entire Atlantic seaboard. Health officials from Vermont to South Carolina and as far west as Ohio and Kansas warned residents that spending time outdoors could cause respiratory problems due to high levels of fine particulates in the atmosphere.

Watch this horrifying timelapse of the smoke hitting New York:

Canadian wildfire smoke darkened the skies of New York City and sent the air quality index soaring past 400 on Wednesday, well into the “hazardous” range and the worst since the EPA began recording air-quality measurements in 1999. https://t.co/kXhZndwYPH pic.twitter.com/Va9svFQgUp

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 8, 2023

Hello, She Who Must Not Be Named, J.K. Rowling, is that you coming for blood?

Due to hundreds of uncontrolled wildfires across Canada, New York City looks like a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

If you want a prelude of what the world is going to look like if we do not address man-made climate change — this is it. #ActOnClimate pic.twitter.com/cimHQkDwkZ

— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) June 7, 2023

The poor air quality is expected to persist throughout the week, with a developing storm system anticipated to shift the smoke westward.

[source:yahoo!news]