It has been unpleasantly smoky in the Twin Cites for several weeks now. The smoke is mainly from the Canadian fires, especially Manitoba and Ontario. The Forest Service have done a good job stopping the fires at the border, but the Boundary Waters Canoe area have been evacuated for some days. We are also getting smoke from the US fires out west.
We had a respite from smoke for quite a period of time today, but the wind changed, and it was back to smoke by late afternoon.
We have had 80 or so fires in Minnesota so far this season, all extinguished I'm glad to say.
I have to say I'm glad I'm not living in the Paul Bunyan Forest on Lake Benedict anymore. The new owners tell me you could not see across the lake many days this week.
We had the first ever purple air quality alert this week in Minnesota.
I'm getting increasingly pessimistic we can reverse climate change.
In the last 10 days there have been catastrophic floods, in Germany, Belgium, Holland and London. The London tube system flooded just before the German floods, and much more severely today. This has never happened before in the 170 year history of the tube. There has been severe street flooding in London in places where it has not been seen before. According to the BBC parts of London got a months rain in two hours. Belgium has also had another round of flooding today apparently.
Arizona and Colorado have seen flooding this week. Parts if India and central China have also had catastrophic floods this past week.
This at the same time the US has a severe mid western drought.
It seems to me we are reaching some type of tipping point. I'm getting a bad feeling about it all.