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Hazy in Toronto? Blame the fires in Northwest Territories

Smoke from wildfires in the Northwest Territories has reached all the way to southern Ontario. NASA/EOSDIS

TORONTO – Did you happen to catch the sunset Thursday night? If you did, you may have noticed that it was particularly dull. That wasn’t due to the typical humidity and heat that usually accompanies the summer weather in southern Ontario. That’s all thanks to smoke from the Northwest Territories.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there were a total of 44 wildfires burning in the territory. To date, more than 73 wildfires, accounting for 160,895 hectares, have burned this season.

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But why has it travelled so far? The jetstream is helping to funnel all that smoke down from the north through northern Manitoba, northern Ontario and finally to the southern part of the province.

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So while the sunset may seem prettier and a bit easier to look at, remember that about 3,000 km away, firefighters are battling tirelessly to stop the forests of the Northwest Territories from burning.

For a high-resolution daily map of the world, click here.

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