TORONTO —
The sky cleared across some parts of Canada early Wednesday and conditions were expected to improve further as the day progressed, amid warnings that the wildfire-induced haze will likely return before long.
“I think … the story, for the rest of the summer into August, is ‘smoke, smoke, smoke from coast to coast,'” Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips told CTV’s Your Morning.
There were no air quality alerts in place for southern Quebec or southern Ontario as of 9:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday – a starkly different picture than 24 hours earlier, when most inhabitants of both regions were warned of potentially dangerous smoke and haze.
In the East, all of New Brunswick remained under an air quality advisory, with Environment Canada reporting that smoke from the wildfires in northern Ontario should leave the area later Wednesday.
The situation was very different in the West – though there, too, air quality was generally a little bit better than it was on Tuesday. Advisories remained in place for parts of northwestern Ontario, most of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the Fort Chipewyan area in northeastern Alberta, and Thebacha Region in the Northwest Territories. In B.C., the air quality advisory expanded to include more of the province’s interior, including the Fraser Canyon.
“There’s still a huge area that is affected by this,” Phillips said.
Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index listed Winnipeg as the only major city in which air quality posed a high risk to human health as of 9:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. That category had included Edmonton, Regina, Montreal and Quebec City 24 hours earlier, while Winnipeg was at that time listed under very high risk.
The poor air quality was caused by drifting smoke from forest fires in the West and Ontario. The arrival of southerly winds had done much to improve the air quality situation, Phillips said, by pushing that smoke northward, away from major cities.
Meanwhile, parts of the North were under extreme heat warnings as a warm airmass brought unusually hot weather to some regions. Environment Canada was warning of daily highs just below 30 C for both Wednesday and Thursday in such communities as Old Crow, Yukon and the Northwest Territories’ Inuvik Region.
A typical late-July high in Old Crow is barely above 20 C; Wednesday’s forecast high of 28 C is higher than any temperature ever recorded in the community on any July 21.
The abnormal heat has also left Yukoners preparing for unprecedented flooding, as snowpacks are melting more quickly than normal under the stress of the sun. Sandbagging operations are underway along the Yukon River in Whitehorse, and evacuation orders have been issued for a handful of low-lying properties elsewhere in the territory.
Projections from Yukon Energy show that by August, water levels in the Southern Lakes Region will be 20 to 80 centimetres above where they were in 2007, which is the record high-water mark.
EXPECT MORE HEAT, DROUGHTS AND SMOKE
In most parts of Canada where smoke and haze continued to fill the sky, Environment Canada forecasts that conditions should clear by Thursday.
Phillips warned, however, that as long as fires continue to burn – there were nearly 900 of them across the country, as of Tuesday night – a change in weather could bring the smoky conditions right back.
“There may be a reprieve in one day, or two days – but hey, it’s coming back. You can’t extinguish those fires overnight,” he said.
More concerning, Phillips said, is how many fires are burning so early in the year. Wildfire activity in Canada tends to peak later in the summer – and with Environment Canada’s forecast showing warmer-than-normal temperatures for the rest of July and into August, conditions could be ripe for more fires to be sparked.
“My sense is [that] this is a story that is going to carry on, and we could see it maybe into September,” Phillips said.
Of course, heat alone does not cause wildfires or create the conditions for them to spread. There’s also the matter of moisture. A forest that has regularly been rained on doesn’t burn nearly as easily as one that hasn’t had a drop to drink in weeks.
That’s why the wildfire season in Western Canada has gotten off to such a busy start: lengthy spring drought left forests tinder-dry. When rain finally arrived, it also brought lightning – the spark that was needed to start the blazes.
The combination of heat and drought has had other consequences, too, including leaving Prairie farmers facing a difficult growing season.
“It’s deteriorating here rather quickly … almost to the point of having no production,” Brad Erb, a grain farmer in Oak Bluff, Man., told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.
Erb said that he has not seen a summer this dry in more than 30 years. Most of his canola crop has been ruined; he hopes there will be enough rain to salvage the corn and soybeans.
Some ranchers have even run out of feed for their cattle, unable to bale a sufficient amount of hay.
“The situation there is pretty dire in terms of getting feed and water to the animals,” Erb said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
