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Canadian concern
Posted: 18 Jul 2026, 12:40
by Airspeed
To any and all of our Canadian Members, keep safe and well during these awful fires in your country.
Re: Canadian concern
Posted: 18 Jul 2026, 14:27
by Tako_Kichi
It's been bad here for a few days and we just got the smoke, it is way worse 'up North'. The smoke here was so bad that when I had to take the dog out for 'potty breaks' my eyes, nose and throat would start itching and burning in seconds and after less than 5 minutes outside I could feel my chest tightening and I started gasping for breath. I finally resorted to digging out the box of Covid era face-masks and using one of those when I went outside which helped a bit but having a full beard meant I didn't get a very good seal so some smoke always got through. Even inside the house with all the windows closed you could still smell the smoke and I would have sneezing fits because of it.
Today is the first day in 4 days that we have had a glimpse of blue sky and the rest of the sky is grey and white instead of brown and yellow! We are now under a severe thunderstorm watch so that might clear the smoke out of the air but lightning strikes could well fire up more fires as it was severe thunderstorms that triggered the first ones.
It's been a wild July so far and we have had two severe thunderstorms here that produced damaging tornadoes just a few miles from us. Thankfully they were mostly out in the farm lands but the storms did pass directly over us before spinning off the tornadoes! All we got was severe straight-line winds, monsoon rain that reduced visibility to about 50 ft and large hail (golf ball sized). A few trees came down in the city but that's all thankfully.
Re: Canadian concern
Posted: 18 Jul 2026, 17:14
by blanston12
Tako_Kichi wrote: ↑18 Jul 2026, 14:27
It's been bad here for a few days and we just got the smoke, it is way worse 'up North'. The smoke here was so bad that when I had to take the dog out for 'potty breaks' my eyes, nose and throat would start itching and burning in seconds and after less than 5 minutes outside I could feel my chest tightening and I started gasping for breath. I finally resorted to digging out the box of Covid era face-masks and using one of those when I went outside which helped a bit but having a full beard meant I didn't get a very good seal so some smoke always got through. Even inside the house with all the windows closed you could still smell the smoke and I would have sneezing fits because of it.
Today is the first day in 4 days that we have had a glimpse of blue sky and the rest of the sky is grey and white instead of brown and yellow! We are now under a severe thunderstorm watch so that might clear the smoke out of the air but lightning strikes could well fire up more fires as it was severe thunderstorms that triggered the first ones.
It's been a wild July so far and we have had two severe thunderstorms here that produced damaging tornadoes just a few miles from us. Thankfully they were mostly out in the farm lands but the storms did pass directly over us before spinning off the tornadoes! All we got was severe straight-line winds, monsoon rain that reduced visibility to about 50 ft and large hail (golf ball sized). A few trees came down in the city but that's all thankfully.
Sorry to hear that Larry, what city are you in?
Here in the SF Bay Area we have has smoke of that scale, fortunately not in the last few years but it all depends on the way the wind blows. Take care.
Re: Canadian concern
Posted: 18 Jul 2026, 18:07
by Tako_Kichi
blanston12 wrote: ↑18 Jul 2026, 17:14
Sorry to hear that Larry, what city are you in?
We are in Southern Ontario close to the Great Lakes and about half-way between the larger cities of Windsor (across the river from Detroit, MI) and London. This 'city' would barely register as a large town in the UK but it has city status here as the largest conurbation in the county of Chatham-Kent and the base for all County municipal offices and depots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham-Kent