The wildfires raging in western Canada will have a slight impact on Quebec this week as a cloud of smoke moves toward the southwest of the province. This will be the first significant episode of its kind to hit Quebec this year. However, air quality should remain at an acceptable level, according to Environment Canada.
“The sky will be hazy, and not brown like we saw last year,” explains Simon Legault, spokesperson for Environment Canada.
Smoke from forest fires will be noticeable over part of Quebec starting in the evening of July 22 and will dissipate during the night of July 23 to 24.
The most affected regions will be Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Outaouais and the Laurentians.
Air quality will remain good for most of this episode, but “could deteriorate to an acceptable level,” said Simon Legault. “These are not worrisome thresholds.” There are three air quality thresholds: good, acceptable and poor.
It is not excluded that other banks of smoke from the west of the country will cross Quebec during the summer at the mercy of air currents, according to the spokesperson for Environment Canada.
Major fires force evacuations
More than 300 fires are being fought by the BC Wildfire Service, they said in a statement released July 21.
Evacuation orders are in place for the central and eastern Kootenays as well as Thompson-Nicola, Cariboo and Bulkley-Nechako in the northwest of the province.
In Alberta, more than 160 fires have been recorded by the provincial government, including 52 that are described as “out of control.”
On July 22, about 7,500 people from five Indigenous communities in the province’s north were forced to leave their homes after being ordered to evacuate, according to the Alberta government.
With information from The Canadian Press