Haziness has set in along Ithaca’s horizon and sunsets have appeared more red and orange than usual since late July. Although some may find these vibrant colors beautiful, these hazy skies and red sunsets are evidence of massive wildfires burning thousands of miles away.
Many active large fires are currently burning in parts of the western U.S. and throughout many regions of Canada. The smoke from these fires rises into the atmosphere, gets caught in the jet stream — a current of fast winds high in the atmosphere — and is carried east across North America. As a result, much of the nation, like Ithaca, is seeing hazy skies.
Fortunately, once the smoke is lofted into the jet stream, it largely stays in the jet stream. Because the jet stream is located high in the atmosphere, it generally keeps the smoke from reaching the surface of the Earth and usually poses no serious air quality health risk to places far away from where the fires are burning, even though the skies may become hazy.
However, many communities located near almost 30 current wildfires have been ordered to evacuate.
Due to the Park fire — now the largest wildfire in California this year — residents in several zones of four counties in northern California were warned to evacuate. The fire started on July 24 as a result of a car fire but has since exploded in size, burning nearly 400,000 acres and destroying more than 500 structures.
As climate change increases, most of the U.S. will continue to face an increasing danger when it comes to wildfires. In recent decades, western states have observed the most dramatic increase as these regions have witnessed a steady increase in the average amount of acres burned each year.
Scientists have attributed this escalation to climate change as rising temperatures have dramatically increased the amount of fire weather days across the U.S. Fire weather days are characterized as having hot, dry and windy conditions. In short, these days provide the optimal conditions for both starting and rapidly spreading wildfires.
Even though residents of Ithaca may feel relatively unaffected by the current wildfires in the west, the hazy skies serve as a reminder that on the other side of the country, people are losing their homes as their communities are swallowed by the burning fires.