Wandering wildfire smoke from afar shows Rhode Island can't escape climate reality

Sand from Mongolia travels hundred of miles before whipping an underprepared cosmopolitan Beijing. Glaciers melt and the sea rises. Smoke from wildfires lifts and swirls down from Canada and across New England, adding to local wildfire effects, forcing some people indoors and endangering those with health conditions.

These are the effects of climate crisis, experts say. As our planet heats more every year, the fuel for wildfire dries out, more cropland turns to dust and air patterns can be intensified. It's the new reality, not an anomaly.

Welcome to a wildfire smoke show.

As haze moved deep down the East Coast this week, skies turned white or brown or gray, sunsets became dramatic, masks discarded from the pandemic came out again and people with asthma and other lung and heart conditions worried and struggled. Runners canceled group plans for Global Running Day this week, and workers who can't miss a paycheck continued to labor outdoors.

"It’s under-appreciated on the East Coast," said climate data expert Edward Kearns of First Street organization. "I think folks out West that live with a higher probability of wildfire, they appreciate it more because it often impacts their daily lives. But it is not just a western-state problem, it is a whole-country, whole-continent, whole-world problem."

UNHEALTHY: An air quality alert continues on Friday. From Rhode Island DEM: "Lingering smoke event continues with UNHEALTHY fine particles. The smoke will be wrapping around a weak area of low pressure guided under light winds. The highest values will be in southern reaches of the state, with the heaviest smoke just offshore. ... Saturday will depend upon the status of the fires in Quebec."

On Friday morning, PM 2.5 fine particle air quality index for the day was forecast at 102.5 in Providence, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups, according to AirNow.gov.

The site IQAir listed the AQI at 70 overall for Providence at 7:30 a.m. Friday, "moderate," fueled by fine particles in the air that are a risk for people to breathe.

How far is the wildfire smoke traveling from?

Smoke from wildfires in Canada continued to drift into the United States this week, prompting air quality alerts. In addition, the wildfire in New Jersey caused travel problems in that state and added to the air quality issues in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

It's been a terrible season for wildfires in Canada. In total, more than 4 million acres have burned in 2,305 fires so far this year. As of June 7, Canada has 245 wildfires burning out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, including dozens in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Quebec alone has 154 active wildfires.

According to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management:

• The fine particles in smoke are so small that they can get past the body’s natural defenses and get deep into the lungs.

• Breathing particle pollution can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and shortness of breath.

• Some people are more likely to experience health effects from poor air quality, including people with asthma or other lung disease, people with heart disease, older adults, and children and babies.

According to the EPA:

• Intense heat from by a wildfire drives smoke to a high altitude. It falls once it cools and as the smoke gets closer to the ground, "it becomes more diluted and often more widespread."

• Smoke can travel thousands of miles, so the impact can reach far from the source of the fires. The same winds that can whip a wildfire into a frenzy also can carry the hazardous particles to distant cities.

• Near-real-time air quality data and forecasts are available to the public via AirNow.gov, including continuous particle pollution data from over 1,700 monitors, and temporary monitors that monitor smoke on an hourly basis during a wildfire.

Are wildfires connected to climate change?

Kearns said rising global heating caused by manmade carbon emissions is providing better base conditions for wildfires.

"Wherever you have vegetation, you have fuel for wildfires, but on the East Coast … there is an emerging risk," he said. "As the fuel gets drier with increasing air temperature, it doesn’t take long for fuels to go to very dangerous."

NOAA prepared a wildfire report that pointed squarely at the climate crisis. "Research shows that changes in climate create warmer, drier conditions, leading to longer and more active fire seasons. Increases in temperatures and the thirst of the atmosphere due to human-caused climate change have increased aridity of forest fuels."

In some parts of the Northeast, the number of hot days per year is expected to double this year compared to a normal summer of several decades ago. The change is due to fossil fuel emissions trapping heat in the atmosphere. First Street and other weather and data partners forecast that some areas of the Northeast will experience triple the number of hot days every year by the end of this decade.

Kearns says the plants, shrubs and trees in the Northeast take only 1,000 hours to dry out to wildfire-fuel condition.

Graphics show how smoke from Canadian wildfires is turning US skies hazy – and hazardous

In the past, wildfires have been more prevalent in the West. The East Coast will start to experience the same issues with global warming, he said, and governments and fire teams are not ready in this region.

U.S. Global Change Research Program prepared a special report for the Fourth Assessment of climate change as it surveyed climate studies related to things like wildfires:

• Higher temperatures and vapor pressure deficits due to manmade climate change have increased forest fire activity in the western United States by increasing the aridity of forest fuels during the fire season.

• Increases in these relevant climatic drivers were found to be responsible for over half the observed increase in western U.S. forest fuel aridity from 1979 to 2015 and doubled the forest fire area over the period 1984–2015.

• Manmade climate crisis and the legacy of land use have an influence on U.S. wildfires and "are subtly and inextricably intertwined. Forest management practices have resulted in higher fuel densities in most U.S. forests."

The Providence Journal is investigating the effects of a rapidly heating planet on people who live in our city. Follow along with "City on Fire" as we report the struggle with summer temperatures. This is part of the USA TODAY project Perilous Course. Contact journalist Alex Kuffner to be included in a story if you have been affected by heat: expense of air conditioning or lack of it, health risks, less access to green space, concern about pets and animals in the summer conditions, worry about an older loved one, etc.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence sees evidence of climate crisis from Canada's wildfires