What do cities from Chicago to Washington, D.C., look like under a blanket of wildfire smoke?

Hot dogs, beach days, and iced tea on the porch are summer rituals. But in the era of global warming, a new ritual has emerged: choking out smoke forest fires Burn hundreds of miles or more away.

The Midwest, Northeast and parts of Canada were attacked by heavy smoke that turned the sky an eerie shade of orange and sparked Widespread air quality alerts. Source? Fires are burning in Minnesota as well as western Ontario.

Canada is where the bulk of the fires are burning, with 119 fires burning out of control across the country as of Friday afternoon. The fire burns so intensely that smoke billows into the atmosphere and travels eastward with the jet stream. And so Chicago and Detroit ended up with the worst air quality in the world on Friday. New York and Washington, D.C., also topped the top 10 list.

Unhealthy air makes cities ask residents to stay indoors and residents are looking for ways to do so Reduce their exposure To harmful forest fire smoke. While fresh air is expected to reach at least some locations this weekend, the fires show no signs of abating and that could mean more smoke later this summer.

The burning of fossil fuels has increased the likelihood of devastating wildfires, and with them, smoke incidents. The days of orange skies that hit the East Coast this week date back to 2023, when Canada’s worst wildfire season on record sent smoke pouring into the region. Similar scenes occurred in Europe this summer, as fires swept through Spain, and we’ve seen orange skies in places as far apart as Australia and California at different times over the past few years.

Research published last year shows that things are likely to get worse unless the world reduces its use of coal, oil and gas. the Nature study It found that wildfire smoke is expected to cause 71,420 excess deaths annually by mid-century in the United States alone, a 73 percent increase over the first decade of this century. Researchers estimate that between now and then, as many as 1.9 million people in the United States will die from smoking-related health problems.

Here’s a look at what the smoke invasion looks like this week. It is almost certainly a precursor to a worse outbreak if temperatures continue to rise.

Toronto, Ontario