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“Unprecedented Fire Season in Canada” Continues to Impact Syracuse “Unprecedented Fire Season in Canada” Continues to Impact Syracuse

Professors at SUNY ESF believe smoky conditions are more than likely

By Griffin Della Penna

Smoky clouds over Syracuse University skyline.
© 2023 Griffin Della Penna

DELLA PENNA: Canada has all of the ingredients for massive wildfire to break out.

VANDER YACHT: We have really dry conditions, and that makes them more readily available for wildfire ignitions to occur.

DELLA PENNA: SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry professor Andy Vander Yacht says wind patterns are the reason why Syracuse is impacted.

VANDER YACHT: All that smoke is then transported into our region.

DELLA PENNA: Vander Yacht credits the increased amount of wildfires to two factors… historical forest management and climate change.

VANDER YACHT: So we have increasing frequency and intensity of those droughts.

DELLA PENNA: Vander Yacht’s colleague, Doctor David Newman cautions Syracuse natives to get used to the smoky conditions.

NEWMAN: In terms of a trend for the rest of the summer? More than likely. It doesn’t look like the fires are getting put any time soon.

DELLA PENNA: The haze is expected to leave Wednesday morning… Griffin Della Penna, NCC News.

Wind patterns on Monday, July 17th at 2:00 p.m. traveling from Western Canada to the southeast.
Wind patterns on Monday, July 17th at 2:00 p.m. traveling from western Canada towards Syracuse. Via windy.com
© 2023 Griffin Della Penna

 

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Smoky conditions returned to Central New York on Monday due to the rampant forest fires that have made their way throughout Canada this summer.

Professors at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry believe that unhealthy air quality levels in the region might be the new normal in the warmer months. Assistant professor Dr. Andy Vander Yacht specializes his research in Forest & Fire Ecology and says that historic forest management and climate change are the main reason for these fires.

“The exclusion and suppression of wildfires, we know, leads to increasing wildfire risk. So we’re basically just postponing events into the future, and that’s kind of caught up with us. So the trends in wildfire over that region have doubled in the last decade,” Vander Yacht said.

Experts like Vander Yacht have developed something called the “Fire Suppression Paradox,” which describes why large-scale fires do so much damage in a short amount of time. “Basically we suppress all fires 98% of fires before they reach 300 acres in size. The remaining 2% of wildfires that reach greater than 300 acres in size, actually cause 98% of all costs and damages associated with wildfires,” Vander Yacht said.

An increase in the time and intensity of droughts throughout Canada leads to conditions that increase the likelihood of wildfires happening in the area.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Syracuse’s air quality level reached 152 at 2:00 p.m., passing the threshold of “unhealthy” for sensitive groups. When the fires initially began in Eastern Canada during early June, levels peaked at 235 resulting in a campfire-like smell.

 

Air Quality levels on Monday, July 17th at 2:00 p.m. Red and orange dots indicate unhealthy levels on the EPA scale.
Air Quality levels on Monday, July 17th at 2:00 p.m. Red and orange dots indicate unhealthy levels on the EPA scale. Via fire.airnow.gov
© 2023 Griffin Della Penna

Professor of resource economics and policy, Dr. David Newman says that people with pre-existing health conditions are still at risk. “Individuals with asthma and COPD are the most at risk, but at some level, that smoke becomes unhealthy for everyone,” Newman said.

With wind patterns expected to continue to travel southeast, expect those clouds over Syracuse just a little while longer.

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