Smoke from US wildfires reaches Europe

US wildfire smoke crosses the Atlantic to northern Europe.

Smoke from the wildfires devastating California and other parts of the western United States has made its way across the Atlantic Ocean to northern Europe, reports The Irish Times.

Scientists from Europe's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) are using satellite technology to track the smoke which travelled across the Atlantic at the end of last week and is expected to do so again in the coming days, reports CNN.

The wildfires, which began in mid-August in California and Colorado, are "significantly more intense than the 2003-2019 average for the whole country and the affected states," according to CAMS.

"The fact that these fires are emitting so much pollution into the atmosphere that we can still see thick smoke over 8,000 kilometres away reflects just how devastating they have been in their magnitude and duration," Mark Parrington, a senior scientist for CAMS, told CNN.

The US National Interagency Fire Center said on 16 September that at least 87 wildfires were burning in 11 states, leading to the cancellation of some flights and forcing residents of affected areas to stay indoors due to dangerously polluted air.

The fires have led to dozens of casualties and resulted in parts of the west coast now having the worst air quality in the world, according to air quality monitoring group IQAir.

Photo Financial Times