Experts issue climate warning as cities choke in orange smoke

Weeks of unprecedented wildfires in Canada have burned millions of hectares, displaced more than 100,000 residents and plunged the country into a nationwide crisis as exhausted crews battle hundreds of blazes

- Leyland Cecco

But experts caution that a changing climate and human actions on the landscape will probably make fire seasons worse in the coming years.

Hundreds of firefighters from across the world have flown to Canada to aid a nation stretched thin with a spring fire season that has shattered records on both sides of the country, with warmer and drier months still to come. As of last Friday, there were 421 fires burning, down from 441 two days previously, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The number of fires deemed out of control also dropped to 230, aided by rains that hit areas of Quebec. More than 43,000 sq km have burned so far this year, making 2023 the second worst year for fires on record - a milestone from 2014 probably eclipsed last weekend.

Earlier last week, smoke from the Quebec fires blew down into the United States, choking the air over New York and Detroit as the cities jockeyed for the title of world's most polluted major city.