In late June of 2023 I stood on the pool deck, staring towards the spot where the capitol should have been. Located atop a hill alongside one of Madison’s many lakes, the pool I worked at typically enjoyed a perfect view of the state capitol across the water. Today; however, we had no such luck. Smoke caused by wildfires in Canada blanketed the city, darkening the sky with haze and prompting days of air quality alerts. My hometown is generally known for being one of the most hazard-free locations in the United States, so when even comparatively low-risk geologic events take place they tend to cause a stir.
Canada experienced record-breaking wildfires this summer, as the fire season began early and continues even now. Many of these fires were large enough to be categorized as megafires, meaning they exceeded 39 square miles (NASA). Primarily the result of summer lightning storms, Canada’s fires were not abnormally great in number, but burned across large swaths of land for months. Although Madison does not usually experience the effects of wildfires, the Canadian megafires were so large that pollutants in the air caused by the smoke traveled south, causing millions of people across the U.S. to be affected by poor air quality. In Madison, the Air Quality Index categorized conditions as “very unhealthy” (an AQI level between 201-300), breaking records for the worst air quality conditions in the area since 1999 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
These hazardous air quality conditions were produced through a combination of the record-breaking Canadian wildfires and the wind patterns that helped carry the smoke to Wisconsin. These winds caused the smoke to build up in the area rather than continue to blow further out. This allowed the smoky air to remain rather than blowing past or dispersing quickly, worsening the effects of the pollutants (Fox47). After several days, rain and wind from the west and south finally began to disperse the smoke, clearing the skies.
During the worst days of smoke, the outdoor pool I coached for chose to make practices optional for athletes in order to minimize their exposure to pollutants. Most other teams chose to cancel practices altogether. The children I nannied for had several days of summer camp canceled, much to their disappointment. Those days gave me eerie flashbacks to the summer of 2020, as individuals who chose to go outside donned masks to protect themselves from the hazardous air. My coworkers and I checked our weather apps obsessively, monitoring the changing air conditions and hoping things would return to normal levels soon. While no one was seriously hurt by this event, it bears noting as an irregularity in my hometown, raising concerns about the frequency of similar events happening in the future and the long term health consequences from being exposed to toxic air.
USGS image of the smoky skies above Canada and the United States in May 2023. Although Madison experienced an air quality alert during this time, it was not nearly as severe as the following month.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151985/tracking-canadas-extreme-2023-fire-season
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/canada-wildfire
https://fox47.com/news/local/the-air-over-madison-is-clearing-but-does-the-future-hold-more-air-quality-concerns
I remember this happening in the Twin Cities too. I also worked at a summer camp and the kids were so bummed when we wouldn't let them eat lunch and play outside. Did you get the orange tint/coloring in the sky? We had several days in the TC where it looked like there was a filter on the world (for a lack of a better description). I'm surprised that the pool just made practices optional rather than making an executive decision to shut down, but I'm sure there's a complicated mixture of politics and business and safety that goes into it hahah.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story!!
DeleteI also experienced this here in St Paul this summer! I had a lot of headaches and a mild cough for a few days. It was also so sad that at risk groups like children or people with asthma couldn't go outside for very long this summer
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