US haze from Canada fires rare and extreme event: Expert

The air pollution swamping the north-east United States this week from smoke spewed by fires in Canada is "exceptionally rare" and "extreme", said Ryan Stauffer, a NASA scientist specialising in air pollution.

The air pollution swamping the north-east United States this week from smoke spewed by fires in Canada is "exceptionally rare" and "extreme", said Ryan Stauffer, a NASA scientist specialising in air pollution.

This episode should last for at least the next two days, the expert told AFP on Wednesday (Jun 7).

"In the last 20 or 25 years, the only event that comes even close to what we're seeing in the past few days was a very similar situation on July 7 and 8, 2002.

"And that was ... maybe even an eerily similar setup, where there were new wildfires in Quebec, this smoke streams directly into the north-eastern of the United States.

"And for many stations in the north-east, that is the top most polluted, in terms of this particular matter, date on record.

"These observations that are coming in yesterday and today are certainly rivalling that July 2002 event. So this is exceptionally rare ... It's really just an extreme event."