David Ljunggren, Maria Cheng, Jennifer McDermott and Philip Marcelo
New Jersey: Thunderstorms in the north-eastern United States are forecast to clear air choked with smoke from wildfires just in time for the World Cup final, as President Donald Trump threatened Canada with new tariffs to pay for the pollution.
Nearly 1000 fires are burning across Canada, and winds have carried the smoke south of the US border, prompting air quality alerts and health warnings in parts of the United States and complaints from Trump and other US politicians about its northern neighbour.
However, fires are also raging in the US with the National Interagency Fire Centre reporting 73 large blazes across 12 states, from Minnesota in the Midwest to Oregon and Washington in the Pacific Northwest.
The Canadian federal Natural Resources Department said there were 69 new fires across the country, raising the total to 955. In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, nearly 200 wildfires have already scorched 1.7 million hectares of forest, while 10 communities have been evacuated, and 300 people have been rescued from campsites in 40 operations.
There are also fires in Nova Scotia, while in British Columbia thousands of lightning strikes increased the number of active fires from 20 in the middle of last week to about 100 now.
On Saturday morning (AEST) Trump threatened Canada with additional tariffs to pay for the “incalculable cost” of dealing with wildfire smoke pollution, which he said was becoming a yearly occurrence and costing the United States billions of dollars.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Canada is home to some of the world’s largest forests, and major fires have become a regular occurrence in summer. Climate experts say rising temperatures have led to drier timber and increased fire risk, while this year’s strong El Nino is sending summer temperatures skyrocketing across the northern hemisphere.
Last week Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the topic of criticism by US officials, saying that climate change was the responsibility of everyone, including the US.
After Trump’s post, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said US criticism of Canadian efforts to stop the fires was “absolutely unacceptable.” If Trump wanted Canada to clear its forests, he should drop US tariffs on softwood lumber, Ford said.
“We’re trying to get through this,” Ford said. If the situation were reversed and the US were facing wildfires, “we’re going to be down there to support our neighbours”, he added.
Trump then reposted Tim Sheehy, the junior senator from Montana, saying that the “send help” message was “extremely dishonest framing” by the Canadians. Trump’s repost came with an endorsement that Sheehy was “GREAT. A Winner!!!” .
Sheehy, who said he was a former waterbomber pilot who used to lead an aerial firefighting fleet, said: “The Canadian government routinely blocks US firefighting companies from attacking fires in Canada, while aggressively sending their government-subsidised aircraft to the US to earn commercial rates from the US government. It’s big business for them and they run it like a Chinese protectionist racket.”
At MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, site of the World Cup final at 3pm Sunday (5am Monday AEST), which Trump is expected to attend, the sky was the same thick, soupy gray it has been for days, even after a drenching thunderstorm prompted warnings of flash flooding and forced the Spanish national team to suspend its last outdoor training session.
Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said a storm front the day before the match will largely move the smoke out of the Northeast before the final between Spain and Argentina.
“There could be some lingering smoke that would make things hazy, but very faint,” Roys said. “In terms of the thickest smoke, the smoke that has really been eye-popping and leads to poor air quality, that is not expected across New York City or much of the Northeast.”
WFLA-TV Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Jeff Berardelli, in Tampa, Florida, said the storm front would “sweep the atmosphere clean,” leaving only a thin smoke that World Cup spectators may still smell in the air.
Temperatures are forecast to be around 27 degrees, with light breezes and low humidity for the start of the final. “You couldn’t have asked for much better weather for the World Cup,” Berardelli said.
Brian Hurley, a senior branch forecaster for the US Weather Prediction Centre, said air quality concerns for the World Cup game should be “much better, but not fully gone”, while the smog would remain “really pretty poor” in the upper Midwest.
Bloomberg, AP, Reuters
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