Why UK’s sunrises and sunsets could be enhanced by North American wildfires

Britons in some parts of the UK may have noticed an unusual sunset last night – and there’s a reason for it.

Skies may have appeared more hazy than usual as the sun went down and as it rose again this morning due to the wildfires in North America – and this could be set to continue.

Despite a sunny, hot day for many parts of the country on Saturday, the skies weren’t as blue as expected because smoke from the wildfires travelled thousands of miles across the pond from North America and Canada because of the split jet stream.

This comes before remnants of a hurricane in the US are expected to bring ‘unseasonably wet and windy’ weather to the UK.

Wildfires have raged across many parts of North America over the summer, which has forced many people to flee their homes and put a lot of strain onto the emergency services.

And now the impact is even being felt as far away as the UK as the skies have gone hazy.

Meteorologist at Sky News, Kirsty McCabe said: ‘You might have noticed the skies have been rather hazy this weekend, thanks to the jet stream bringing smoke from North America (mainly from Canadian wildfires) all the way across the Atlantic to our shores.

‘Luckily because the smoke particles are so high up in our atmosphere they won’t have an impact on our health, but they could enhance our sunsets and sunrises this weekend.’

Ms McCabe added that this isn’t ‘unheard of’ and that this happened throughout the summer last year.

She added that these incidents are ‘unfortunately’ becoming more commonplace because ‘climate change is linked to heatwaves and droughts’, which leads to ‘earlier, longer, and more intense wildfire seasons’.

Some of the worst wildfires have taken place in the Canadian Rockies where around 25,000 people escaped the town of Jasper last month as the wildfires moved towards it.

Last year saw a record number of wildfires in which more than 235,000 people had to flee their homes in Canada.

The fires also sent thick smoke into parts of the US, which caused health advisories as well as the hazy skies that were also seen in the UK.

And weather this week in the UK is due to be impacted by Hurricane Ernesto which erupted across North America last week.

The hurricane, which also hit South America, has left thousands of people in Puerto Rico without water or power.

As the jet stream is joining together again, it will bring remnants of the destructive hurricane to the UK.

Ms McCabe continued: ‘Hurricane Ernesto, which crossed Bermuda as a category 1 hurricane on Saturday morning, is set to transition into an extra-tropical system next week.’

While there’s a lot of uncertainty around exactly when the wet and windy whether will hit the UK’s shores, it’s looking like it will be ‘unseasonably wet’ on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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