A combined 20,000 acres have burned in British Columbia and Alberta’s northern regions over the last few days, sending smoke billowing into Minnesota and threatening a repeat of last year’s wood-scented fog that blanketed the American northeast for more than a week last year, CNN reports.
Already the Canadian government have been issuing air quality warnings for a wide swath of the country from British Columbia into Ontario. “Conditions should begin to improve Sunday night for much of the province. Over northwestern Alberta conditions are likely to remain poor through Monday or possibly Tuesday,” said an alert issued on Saturday. As for the fires themselves, thousands have been evacuated from the regions affected in the provinces’ northern reaches.