{"id":262230,"date":"2023-06-15T13:48:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T11:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262230"},"modified":"2023-06-15T13:48:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T11:48:28","slug":"unraveling-the-enigma-canadian-wildfires-a-stroke-of-misfortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262230","title":{"rendered":"Unraveling the Enigma: Canadian Wildfires, a Stroke of Misfortune"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York City recently grappled with one of its worst air quality experiences in half a century, a victim of dense smoke wafting southwards from the Quebec province in Canada. The headlines were swift to pin the blame on climate change. Yet, Clifford Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, writing in the Wall Street Journal,<\/a> begs to differ. In his words,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cthese claims are inconsistent with peer-reviewed science, the observational record and our growing understanding of the meteorology associated with wildfire events.\u201dhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/canadian-wildfires-climate-change-new-york-smoke-global-warming-boreal-forest-d8bff3b6?mod=opinion_lead_pos5<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Professor Mass, who has published extensively on wildfire meteorology and studied the effects of climate change on atmospheric circulation, as well as receiving funding from both the US Forest Service and the National Science foundation to specifically research wildfire meteorology, offers a different perspective. He explains that an<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cunusual atmospheric circulation resulted in wildfire ignition and rapid growth,\u201d with climate change being \u201conly a minor player in this event.\u201dhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/canadian-wildfires-climate-change-new-york-smoke-global-warming-boreal-forest-d8bff3b6?mod=opinion_lead_pos5<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The crux of his argument is rooted in the understanding of the natural ecology and the associated climatic events of the boreal forests of northern Quebec. Fire isn\u2019t a stranger in these woods. The region\u2019s ecosystem relies on fires for the release of seeds and overall forest health. Fires are not unusual during a narrow window from mid-April to early June, after winter snow has melted and before grasses and other smaller plants grow, reducing flammability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the boreal fires have been known to occur during the spring, like the infamous May 2010 fire and the May 1870 Saguenay fire. According to Mass,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201clarge boreal forest fires during the spring in Canada are neither unusual nor a sign of climate change.\u201dhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/canadian-wildfires-climate-change-new-york-smoke-global-warming-boreal-forest-d8bff3b6?mod=opinion_lead_pos5<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The recent wildfires began on June 2, ignited by hundreds of lightning strikes on vegetation dried by a week of unusually warm weather. The Canadian drought monitor reflected normal moisture conditions and temperatures close to or below average prior to the warm spell. This refutes any claims of abnormal dryness as the ignition point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The circumstances were set in motion when a high-pressure system started forming over south-central Canada around May 27. It led to an environment ripe for wildfires, warming and drying the area for several days into early June. The final ignition source arrived early in June with a lightning storm associated with low pressure. As Mass aptly puts it,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was the perfect storm for smoke in New York, with several independent elements occurring in exactly the right sequence.\u201dhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/canadian-wildfires-climate-change-new-york-smoke-global-warming-boreal-forest-d8bff3b6?mod=opinion_lead_pos5<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, the debate around climate change\u2019s involvement is still rife. Mass argues,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to find any plausible evidence for a significant climate-change connection to the recent New York smoke event.\u201dhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/canadian-wildfires-climate-change-new-york-smoke-global-warming-boreal-forest-d8bff3b6?mod=opinion_lead_pos5<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, despite an increase in both precipitation and temperature in Quebec over the past half-century, the number of wildfires is decreasing. Mass states,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cEven assuming that this warming is entirely human-induced, it represents only a small proportion of the excessive heat during the event.\u201dhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/canadian-wildfires-climate-change-new-york-smoke-global-warming-boreal-forest-d8bff3b6?mod=opinion_lead_pos5<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The weather conditions in Quebec preceding the wildfire event were largely normal, and the high pressure over southern Canada, responsible for the warming, has no proven association with climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing a metaphor with card games, Mass underscores that our atmosphere, a chaotic system, is dominated by random natural variability. Much like the rare luck of being dealt a full house or a straight flush in a card game, many extreme weather events hinge on random factors, with climate change\u2019s effects relatively small compared to the random variations inherent in our complex atmospheric system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather conditions in Quebec preceding the wildfire event were largely normal, and the high pressure over southern Canada, responsible for the warming, has no proven association with climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":262233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819714,691818056,691820224],"class_list":{"0":"post-262230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-canadian-wildfires","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-quebec","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0prothomalo-english_2023-06_21ff7ab1-e53a-4240-83da-d71ac73b0c63_CANADA_WILDFIRES_FORESTRY.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-16dw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262119,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262119","url_meta":{"origin":262230,"position":0},"title":"Wrong, Mainstream Media, Climate Change Didn\u2019t Cause Canadian Forest Fires or the Smoke in U.S. Cities","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, mainstream media outlets were abuzz with stories claiming that smoke from wildfires in Canada visibly polluting the skies in New York City, Washington, D.C., and many other cities in the northeastern United States was due to climate change. This is false.","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261853,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261853","url_meta":{"origin":262230,"position":1},"title":"You are being conned: Data, studies & UN IPCC all reveal Canadian fires not due to \u2018climate change\u2019 \u2013 \u2018There has been a significant & continuing decline in the number of fires\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The media and climate activists are again weaponizing wildfires and linking them to climate change. 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Almost all provinces, including Quebec, have been affected. True to form, mainstream media has been quick to associate these terrifying and spectacular natural events with (anthropogenic) climate change. 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