Smoke from Western wildfires has reached Europe

Smoke from the wildfires in the West is spreading across the United States and has even reached Europe, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).

Satellite images show the smoke hovering above the United Kingdom moving into Northern Europe, a nearly 5,000 mile journey.

“The scale and magnitude of these fires are at a level much higher than in any of the 18 years that our monitoring data covers,” Mark Parrington, CAMS senior scientist and wildfire expert, said in a release.

#Smoke from the unprecedented #USFires is moving back across #NorthAmerica from the #Pacific and is on its way to #Europe.

Find out more about the monitoring of fires and their smoke by the #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service in our latest article➡️https://t.co/st70y5IwUC pic.twitter.com/h7MoM2IBKl

— Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) September 16, 2020

Since mid-August the wildfires have emitted an estimated 30 megatonnes of carbon emissions, with 21.7 megatonnes of carbon in California, 7.3 megatonnes of carbon in Oregon and 1.4 megatonnes of carbon in Washington.

Maps show smoke spreading across much of the Northern U.S. as well as the mid-Atlantic.

While the smoke is too high up to impact air quality on the East Coast, it has been affecting the weather, blocking out the sun and creating cloudier days.