Smoke and Carbon Monoxide from North American Wildfires Travel 8,000km, Affecting Spain, Portugal, and Beyond
Smoke from devastating wildfires in North America has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reaching Spain, Portugal, and parts of France and Belgium. Satellite imagery from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service shows vast quantities of smoke, which has carried harmful pollutants like Carbon Monoxide (CO) over 8,000 kilometers (nearly 5,000 miles) across the atmosphere. The dense cloud of wildfire emissions is a stark reminder of the global environmental impact of such disasters, with the Iberian Peninsula now facing poor air quality as a result. This phenomenon underscores the interconnectedness of climate and air pollution, with North American wildfires affecting air quality in distant European countries.
