If you live in British Columbia, chances are you don’t need a news story to tell you that the air quality is extremely shitty right now due to more than 500 wildfires raging across the province. If you live in Vancouver, Kamloops, the Okanagan, Prince George, the Kootenays, or Nanaimo you can just look outside at the hellish pink sky, taste the ashtray-flavoured air, and figure it out for yourself.
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The wildfires have already resulted in several evacuations, with the latest alert affecting the 4,500 residents of Kimberley, BC. But the hell smoke has reached well across Western Canada, grounding planes, prompting health warnings, and inviting media to suggest we’re experiencing some of the worst air quality on Earth.
Much of BC is rated “high risk” or “very high risk” on the province’s air quality index, with smoke blocking out the sun entirely in some areas. Health authorities have issued warnings for children and the elderly to stay indoors and avoid physical activity in much of the Interior and the Lower Mainland.
According to an international pollution index called the “Breezometer,” the Lower Mainland has some of the worst quality air on the planet right now. On Sunday CTV compared the air in Prince George and Mumbai, India, with BC rating 10 points worse on a scale of 100. As of Monday, North Vancouver’s air quality dropped even lower to 19 out of 100. That’s slightly worse than Mumbai, a city renowned for air pollution, which currently rates 21 out of 100.
Last week BC declared a state of emergency because of the wildfires. The smoke has since caused several BC airports to cancel flights due to low visibility.Airports in Kelowna, Penticton, West Kootenay and Castlegar all cancelled flights Sunday, according to the CBC.
"To be honest with you, I've personally never seen it this bad," Kelowna airport manager Sean Parker told CBC over the weekend. "You look out the window here in Kelowna … It's like we're in a fog."
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On Monday, more flights were cancelled between Vancouver and Kelowna, Penticton and Castlegar, according to News 1130.
The size of BC’s wildfires stayed mostly the same over the weekend. The smoke is expected to stay in the Metro Vancouver area into Tuesday.Sign up for the VICE Canada Newsletter to get the best of VICE Canada delivered to your inbox.Follow Sarah on Twitter.