B.C. wildfires survived the winter underground - forest fire smoke now visible again
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While forest fires are claiming many lives in Chile in the south of the Americas, Western Canadian wildfires that went dormant over the winter have once again moved above ground, producing visible smoke and smouldering, the B.C. Wildfire Service says.
Few North Americans will forget the summer of 2023, when smoke from Canadian forest fires covered large parts of the Northern Hemisphere and obscured the skies as far as New York.
Some of these fires burnt so hot they never were completely extinguished but continued to smoulder underground.
These "holdover fires" are primarily in the Prince George Fire Centre, which covers the northeastern quadrant of the province:
"A holdover fire is a fire that remains dormant and/or undetected for a considerable time after it starts," the service said in a bulletin, adding they are particularly common for lightning-caused fires or fires of "considerable size."
It is not uncommon for holdover wildfires to be reported, though in past years notices about their reappearance generally come later in the year, around March or April, reports ABC News.
Photo Credit: In May 2023 wildfires in northern Alberta, Canada caused significant impact on air quality as thick smoke engulfed areas across Canada and the United States. On May, 17th, 2023, the day this photograph was taken, the Air Quality Health Index from the Government of Canada measured 10+, the highest rating possible. Photo by Dwayne Reilander - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132070486