The smoke from the devastating fires in Canada is being felt in Malaga.

The image might remind some, albeit distantly, of the impressive dust haze that reached Málaga in March 2022, which turned the city orange. However, it has nothing to do with that historic episode. The sky seen these days also has reddish hues, and the explanation comes from far beyond our borders. It is due to the wave of wildfires that is affecting eastern Canada, which has recorded 179 wildfires, leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from their homes. The flames have consumed more than 50,000 hectares, and the havoc of the smoke affects not only North America but has also crossed the Atlantic Ocean and has been noticeable in the skies of Western Europe since Sunday.

In Spain, particles from the Canadian fires have been detected, mainly in the northwest of the peninsula. However, they are at a high altitude in the atmosphere, between 3,000 and 4,000 meters, so they currently pose no health risk. Unlike in Canada, where the Ministry of Environment has issued an alert for poor air quality in much of the country's west, and the pollution may reach the United States. It was initially estimated that the smoke would not go beyond the northeastern peninsula, but according to José Luis Escudero, the person in charge of the blog Tormentas y rayos, strong winds these days have also brought it to the south of our country, and to Málaga.

The most critical situation is occurring in the west of Manitoba province, which has declared a state of emergency. More than 17,000 people have left their homes, resulting in a total of 21,000 citizens displaced due to the fires' advance, including hundreds of inhabitants from remote indigenous communities.

During the first six months of the year, Canada has already seen more than 1,600 fires devastate 1.4 million hectares of forest. Thus, an area equivalent to Montenegro or the province of Burgos has been reduced to ashes. The explosive combination of high temperatures and low humidity has intensified the spread of the fire.

Manitoba has experienced the worst start to the wildfire season in recent years. Nearly 200,000 hectares of forest have burned in the last 30 days, which is triple the average annual total of the past five years, lamented Kirstin Hayward, from the regional forest fire service.