Smoky skies could become more common during future New England summers as climate changes - WMUR Manchester
Wildfire-fueled smoky skies could occur in future summers
Smoky skies could become more common during future New England summers as climate changes
Classic summer days with a crisp blue sky have been hard to come by this summer and a changing climate could eventually make these days even more uncommon.
The Northeast has been blanketed by plumes of thick haze going back to May. In early June, the sky over New York City looked like a scene from a movie.
New Hampshire has not been immune from impacts. Hazy skies and poor air quality have become a frequent problem here over the past couple months.
The smoke is coming as wildfires burn across Canada. More than 28 million acres of land have burned so far this year -- more than the past four years combined – with no signs of it slowing down anytime soon.
“Forest fires are common this time of year, but the fires have been particularly bad this year due to the really dry and warm conditions they've experienced.” Dr. Mary Stampone, New Hampshire’s state climatologist, said.
Stampone said the stagnant summer weather pattern over North America has been responsible for our hazy skies and smoke-filled air.
“Air quality issues are coming from the jet stream pattern, which is basically funneling that smoke from the wildfires out west over the northern tier of the Great Lakes portion of the U.S., then out over New England,” Stampone said.
There aren't any studies that connect Canada's historic wildfire season to climate change, but Stampone said the drier and hotter conditions that come with a warmer climate could increase the coverage and intensity of fires in the future.
“If the conditions become more favorable for a longer period of time and in more years, these conditions can occur more frequently than they had in the past,” Stampone said.
While Canada’s historic wildfire season is an anomaly, scientists said this could be a preview of a smoky future for summers in New England.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.