June 29, 2023 -- Poor air quality across numerous states because of Canadian wildfires and high heat across the South have millions of Americans struggling.
“Everybody’s saying, ‘We’re used to the heat, but not to this degree,’” said Mayor Victor Treviño of Laredo, Texas, in The Washington Post. The city tied its all-time high of 115 degrees last week, and nine people died related to the heat.
The Post estimated that 59 million people are at risk of being exposed to dangerous heat, mostly in the South.
American cities ranked among the world’s worst for air quality Wednesday, according to IQAir, with Detroit and Washington, DC, fairing worse than Baghdad, Iraq, and Delhi, India.
The National Weather Service said the wildfires will continue to lower air quality through Thursday. It urged people to avoid being outside too long and said people with chronic respiratory issues should stay indoors.
“Scientists said climate change helped shape the weather conditions that were causing misery and putting lives at risk from Mexico to Canada,” The Post reported. “There was no disputing the impact: If it wasn’t way too smoky, it was way too hot.”
Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, told The Post, “You get to pick your poison. Heat waves occur naturally, as do fires, but climate change makes the heat waves more intense and the fires more intense.”
The Post said relief from the smoke and Southern heat are days away.
California could get its first big heat wave of the year this weekend. Temperatures above 100 degrees are expected in its Central Valley.