Orange Skies, Smoky Air and Billions at Risk of Going Up in Smoke

[intro music] Welcome to Eh Sayers, a podcast by Statistics Canada where we meet the people behind the data and explore the stories behind the numbers.

I'm your host, Max Zimmerman.

I'll be honest, as a city dweller, wildfires just aren't on my day-to-day radar.

But to date, two thousand and twenty-three was Canada's most destructive wildfire season yet.

Over six thousand wildfires burned at least fifteen million hectares of land during twenty-twenty-three.

For those of you like me having a hard time visualizing what fifteen million hectares of land looks like, that's an area of destruction larger than England.

We see these apocalyptic scenes online, but when we keep scrolling on our socials, life for us urbanites, it just keeps on going.

And that's been the case as far back as I can remember.

But in recent years, even our biggest cities have started to feel some of the real tangible impacts of these wildfires.

For several summers in a row now, smoky air and orange skies have descended upon Southeast Ontario, impacting visibility and causing air quality advisories due to some of the worst air quality in the world at the time.

What used to be considered a Western Canadian problem only now has researchers convinced that wildfires are an issue that faces the entire country.

So far this year, wildfire season in Canada has started off thankfully pretty slow.

But experts like those you're about to hear from, they're not breathing any sighs of relief just yet.

Let's meet them now and find out what the data says about what we can expect for the rest of the summer and into the future.

[intro music] Welcome to Eh Sayers, a podcast by Statistics Canada where we meet the people behind the data and explore the stories behind the numbers.

I'm your host, Max Zimmerman.

I'll be honest, as a city dweller, wildfires just aren't on my day-to-day radar.

But to date, two thousand and twenty-three was Canada's most destructive wildfire season yet.

Over six thousand wildfires burned at least fifteen million hectares of land during twenty-twenty-three.

For those of you like me having a hard time visualizing what fifteen million hectares of land looks like, that's an area of destruction larger than England.

We see these apocalyptic scenes online, but when we keep scrolling on our socials, life for us urbanites, it just keeps on going.

And that's been the case as far back as I can remember.

But in recent years, even our biggest cities have started to feel some of the real tangible impacts of these wildfires.

For several summers in a row now, smoky air and orange skies have descended upon Southeast Ontario, impacting visibility and causing air quality advisories due to some of the worst air quality in the world at the time.

What used to be considered a Western Canadian problem only now has researchers convinced that wildfires are an issue that faces the entire country.

So far this year, wildfire season in Canada has started off thankfully pretty slow.

But experts like those you're about to hear from, they're not breathing any sighs of relief just yet.

Let's meet them now and find out what the data says about what we can expect for the rest of the summer and into the future.