Earth runs a fever from pollution. Over 3,063 fires before July in Canada’s worst fire season, 8.2 million hectares burnt, over 100 million in US under air quality alert

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Canadian wildfire smoke reaches Europe as Canada reports its worst fire season on record
(CNN) Canada has officially marked its worst wildfire season on record, with smoke from the blazes crossing the Atlantic Ocean and reaching western Europe, with at least 19,027,114 acres already charred across the country. Wildfire activity in Canada typically peaks from June to August, leaving more than half of the peak season still to come.

More than 100 million people are under air quality alerts from Wisconsin to Vermont and down to North Carolina as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to waft south. More than 500 active wildfires raging across Canada have tanked the air quality across parts of that country and the United States. As of early Friday, Toronto topped a list of the world’s major cities with the worst air quality, followed by Washington, DC, according to IQAir.

To date, 3,063 fires have burned burned approximately 20 million acres (8.2 million hectares) this wildfire season. The 10-year average for Canadian wildfire seasons around this time is 2,452 fires burning 1.3 million acres (around 540,740 hectares), per the CIFFC. Seasons typically begin around May, ramp up over the summer months and diminish around fall, with July usually being the most active month.

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Image courtesy Reuters, NASA FIRMS, Getty / Reuters and Graeme Bruce / CBC