Scientists said smoke from hundreds of wildfires raging in Canada has reached Norway.
The smoke from wildfires in Canada has already enveloped sections of the US, putting 75 million people under air quality alerts.
However, clouds of smoke have spread from Canada to Greenland, Iceland, and Norway in recent days.
Scientists at Norway’s Climate and Environmental Research Institute (NILU) were able to identify the spike in smoke using very sensitive detectors and then confirm its source using forecast models.
According to Nikolaos Evangeliou, a senior scientist at NILU, people in Norway may be able to smell and even perceive the smoke as a light haze but, unlike parts of the US that have seen hazardous pollution, they should experience no health impacts.
Nikolaos Evangeliou said, “The fires traveling from such long distances arrive very diluted”.
Over the next few days, the plume is projected to expand throughout Europe. However, Evangeliou believes that people will be unable to smell or notice the smoke.
It is fairly uncommon for wildfire smoke to reach great distances.
Evangeliou explained, “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”.
California’s record-breaking wildfires were detected in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago located far north of the Arctic Circle in 2020.
The smoke had a harmful impact on the environment. Moving wildfire smoke puts soot on the snow and ice, darkening the white surface and allowing it to absorb more heat. This, in turn, hastens Arctic warming.
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