“Wildfires are happening more frequently. They’re getting bigger. They’re emitting more smoke,” Paige Fischer, a professor of environmental sustainability at the University of Michigan says. “The climate models are projecting that we’re going to have more frequent, more severe wildfires.” As of Thursday, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center said 201 fires are burning right now in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario … residents of the U.S. Midwest — especially in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan — are being forced to contend with the thick smoke. …the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow page is showing air quality moderate to unhealthy throughout a large swath of the U.S., with the worst conditions in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. …Lori Daniels, a forest ecologist and professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) who specializes in wildfire science, agrees. “Smoke knows no political boundaries — and neither does fire,” she says.

Related coverage in Euro News by Rosie Frost: Smoke from Canada’s wildfires reaches Europe amid extreme start to the 2025 fire season