Canada’s wildfire season erupts, sending harmful smoke into United States

Wildfires in Canada have roared back to life, sending harmful smoke into the northern United States — an unwelcome reminder of last summer’s historic fire season that also repeatedly sent plumes of noxious haze southward.

Almost a year to the date from the explosive start to the 2023 fire season, hundreds of fires have erupted in Canada, including a dozen major and out-of-control blazes. At least 500,000 acres of land have burned so far, much of it in recent days.

Smoke from the blazes has led to air quality alerts for much of Alberta and its surrounding provinces, as well as Minnesota and Wisconsin. Edmonton was subjected to red-tinged skies and hazardous air quality over the weekend because of wildfires to its north.

International Falls, Minn., awoke Monday to air quality alerts, which expanded to cover a large portion of Minnesota and Wisconsin, including Minneapolis and Green Bay.

Even during winter, numerous blazes in Canada — known as “zombie fires” — smoldered beneath the snow. The combination of a warm and very dry winter set the stage for flames to quickly expand this spring.

Belts of extreme to exceptional drought are draped across the zone from central British Columbia to northern Alberta, where many of the worst fires rage. The majority of provincial land from Canada’s west coast to Ontario is experiencing at least moderate drought.

More than 100 fires were burning in British Columbia on Monday morning, and just shy of four dozen in Alberta. Other large blazes were scorching provinces to the east.

The largest uncontrolled fire was burning in the mining region of Manitoba near the border with Saskatchewan, about 400 miles north of the North Dakota border. It had grown to at least 86,000 acres by early Sunday. The fire led to evacuations in the town of Flin Flon and power cuts across the region.