• 5 months ago
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter explains the current fires and smoke creeping in from Canada and Mexico into the U.S.
Transcript
00:00 Canadian wildfire smoke is creating unhealthy air in the central US. Smoke from Canadian wildfires
00:06 is back and it's spreading over part of the northern United States and could spread farther
00:11 throughout the area during the week. Until this past weekend, smoke from the western Canadian
00:16 fires have been confined to Canada. All right, joining me right now is AccuWeather chief
00:20 meteorologist Jonathan Porta. You know, Jon, our long-range department, by the way,
00:24 did forecast that, listen, the Canadian wildfire season, which was huge last year, although this
00:30 year wasn't going to be as big, we did project a robust season and we're already having problems
00:36 in western Canada. We sure did. It didn't take any time to get going there with long-term drought
00:42 persisting across parts of northwest Canada and that's led to some big fires already early on.
00:49 And of course, while most of the most imminent and most significant health impacts from that smoke
00:55 are confined to the area near these fires up and way up in Alberta, the smoke can sometimes be
01:01 transported thousands of miles away into the United States like we saw last year as well.
01:06 Jon, we're also dealing with some problems with fires in Central America and with the southerly
01:13 flow we've seen so far this week out ahead of our trough in California here. We have some problems
01:19 along the Gulf Coast with some smoke as well. Just like we're having some issues with fires in Canada
01:25 bringing that smoke down to the United States, also from the south some big fires where drought
01:29 has also been a big problem and warmth across Mexico. Some big fires near Mexico City and then
01:35 also the Yucatan Peninsula and that's resulting in these winds from the south transporting that
01:41 smoke mostly at a high altitude in the atmosphere. That's where the health impacts can be limited,
01:47 but at times some of this can get down near the ground too. Yeah, and if you take a look at the
01:51 AQI across the country though, all in all, Jon, it's a little better than it was earlier in the
01:57 week. A lot of green on the map, but there's that area from Texas toward the Dakotas where you see a
02:01 little yellow where it's moderate. That's right, and that's the lingering impacts here across the
02:06 central plains of some of that smoke that came down last weekend, of course, caused all kinds of
02:12 poor air quality across Minnesota and including the Minneapolis area. Some of that lingers in the
02:17 plains and then we're going to watch to the south here because that's where the bigger problems with
02:22 poor air quality from that smoke coming up from Mexico will be found over the coming days.
02:27 You know, oftentimes I use this map, our energy map, to show you where storms are strengthening,
02:32 but they could also show wind flow. Very helpful when you're trying to track smoke.
02:36 Sure is, and the first aspect we're looking at is look at there's a lot of west-east flow
02:41 across the northern tier of the United States near the border, so that's going to keep a lot
02:45 of the smoke from the Canadian fires, at least in the short term, contained to the north.
02:50 But to the south, we're going to see more flow out of the southwest and west-southwest,
02:55 and while we're going to be dealing with heavy rain threats here, we've been talking about that
02:59 here this morning along the Gulf Coast over the coming days, when it's not pouring, well,
03:04 we're going to be dealing with some concerns for smoke in some areas and haze in the atmosphere.
03:09 Let's take a look at the IQ of the forecast here, John, as we go forward here. There's the Thursday
03:13 and there's what you were talking about, that westerly wind kind of cleaning things out across
03:18 the upper Midwest, but problems with some yellow there from Houston toward Jacksonville on Thursday
03:24 and probably so on Friday as well. Correct, and also that will linger into the weekend as well,
03:30 and again, especially in south Texas, places like Brownsville and near the Rio Grande,
03:35 that's where some of those health impacts can be amplified when that smoke gets closer to the
03:39 ground, and that's the risk for people to breathe that in and result in some of those health issues,
03:44 especially for people with respiratory conditions and the young and the elderly.
03:48 All right, really quickly here, because I'm getting the evil eye from Ari, we're taking
03:52 your time, the IQ of the forecast, the long-range department, a couple of areas we're concerned
03:57 about wildfires this summer. We'll have to watch for smoke at times across the northern tier,
04:02 from the northern plains, the Great Lakes, and even the northeast, because there's going to be
04:07 some fires across parts of southern Canada we're concerned about, and then also look at all this
04:11 red up here in northwest Canada, though it's thousands of miles away from the eastern part
04:17 of the country. Sometimes when that flow goes around to the north and west, there can be smoke
04:21 issues. And of course, we've had so many fires so far across this Texas panhandle already,
04:25 that's why we have that red there. All right, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter,
04:29 John, thanks again for joining us.

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