By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--June 8, 2023
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Barreling from out of nowhere Canada—because of its out-of-control raging wildfires—has become the nation to blame for foul air making people sick in the United States of America.
Overnight—in fact only last night—“smoke” became a permanent feature of the Global Warming-obsessed World Weather Network.
Today when people click online to check on the weather, it’s no longer just sun, rain, clouds, hot, cold, but smoke they’ll see.
This has been coming for a long time, but got goosed and boosted when the need to replace Covid-19 with scare mongering Global Warming/Climate Change became necessary to keep people indoors and wearing face masks.
Emails sent last night to Canada Free Press (CFP) from friends and readers were from those all the way from Chicago, Illinois to Austin, Texan, describing the thick black smoke hovering over them, making it difficult to breathe outside.
“Me and my dog are going back into the house to get out of the smoke and mosquitoes,” wrote one from the outskirts of Chicago.
“Now, people are being advised to stay inside,” wrote a dear friend from Austin.
“Just as people were advised to stay inside during three long years of Covid,” I responded.
Radical environmental activists, governments, mainstream and social media knew some in the public masses would be demanding to know, “Why are all these wildfires hitting us at once?”
Their answer was both ready-made and pre-determined even before the smoke from the Canadian wildfires reached America:
“In Nova Scotia, a lack of snow cover this past winter meant there was less spring melt and on top of that, the province, in particular Halifax, saw half of the average amount of rainfall, leading to the “driest April” on record, said Anthony Farnell, Global News’ chief meteorologist. (Global News, May 31 2023)
“Unfortunately, it continues to be very dry, warm and extremely low relative humidity — and it’s that low humidity that really leads to dangerous conditions,” he added.
“On top of the dry spell in the region — although some rain is expected Friday — wind action and severe storms have exacerbated the situation in Halifax, fire officials say.
The rain in the Nova Scotia Village where CFP is, came on early Saturday morning, helping brave firefighters bring most of the wildfires under control.
But now toxic smoke dominates weather news:
‘Air pollution cloaks eastern US for a second day. Here's why there is so much smoke’-(AP, June 8, 2023
“Intense smoke blanketed the northeastern United States for a second day Wednesday, turning the air a yellowish gray and prompting warnings for people to stay inside and keep windows closed. The smoke was flowing from dozens of wildfires in several Canadian provinces.
“Much of the air was in the “unhealthy or worse categories in areas from the mid-Atlantic through the Northeast and parts of the Upper Great Lakes,” according to an advisory issued by the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday night
“U.S. authorities issued air quality alerts in multiple regions and smoke was expected to persist for days.
“Conditions were especially bad in parts of central New York, where the airborne soot was at hazardous levels. In New York City, officials on Wednesday said everyone should stay indoors. The conditions arrived late Tuesday afternoon, obscuring views of New Jersey across the Hudson River.
“Here’s a closer look at what’s happening and what’s in the smoke:
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Unusually hot, dry weather that wouldn’t stop gave rise to the wildfires.
“The month of May was just off the charts — record warm in much of Canada,” said Eric James, a modeling expert with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science at the University of Colorado, who is also with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"A warming planet will produce hotter and longer heat waves, making for bigger, smokier fires, according to Joel Thornton, professor and chair of the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.
“The Quebec-area fires are big and relatively close, about 500 to 600 miles (roughly 800 to 970 kilometers) from Rhode Island and they followed wildfires in Nova Scotia.
“I don’t remember fires of this scale in the last 10 years,” James said of the Quebec blazes.
“Smoke from fires in western Canada have been drifting into the United States for weeks. But it’s recent fires in Quebec that have produced the dangerous east coast haze.
“In Canada, air is circulating counterclockwise around a low pressure system near Nova Scotia. That sends air south over the fires in Quebec. There the air picks up smoke, and then turns east over New York state, carrying smoke to the eastern seaboard.
“It’s a simple matter of trajectory,” said Bob Henson, meteorologist with Yale Climate Change Connections. “The smoke goes where the wind takes it.”
Although smoke seems familiar, it is actually made up of a complex mix of shapes, from round to corkscrew-shaped under the microscope.
“It’s not just one sort of chemical,” said Rima Habre, an expert in air quality and exposure science at the University of Southern California. ”It could have gases and carbons and toxic metals.” As it travels, Habre said, it also changes and can contain ozone.
“Much of what we see in the air and measure is small particles, or PM 2.5. These are so small they can get deep into the lungs, where oxygen enters your circulation.
“Mostly we worry about inflammation in the lungs,” Habre said, from these high levels of pollution. But with climate change amping up fires, increasingly, she said, she is worried about broader numbers of people being exposed to less extreme smoke for weeks or months.
“Most healthy adults and children will recover quickly from smoke exposure and will not have long-lasting health effects,” according to the EPA advisory. But that is less true for a large category of people, including children whose lungs are still developing, older adults, and people with lung diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Stay inside, keeping your doors, windows and fireplaces shut, is the advice. Air conditioning on the recirculation setting can help filter out some particles, and air filters can remove many more.
Toxic smoke is good advertising for the Weather Network. People looking up at the sky, go immediately to the Network to find out, “What’s up?”
Finding out, includes advice to stay indoors and return to the use of Covid-like face masks.
Nowhere, in any of the Weather Network’s reports is it stressed that smoke is not permanent. After hours or days, it is gone with the proverbial wind.
Nowhere can it be seen that toxic smoke doesn’t hover about forever. Nowhere, that is, except for the Weather Network.
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