The Smokey Summer of 1950

In my recent trip to the Baptist archives at Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, I came across an interesting weather report in the Maritime Baptist. As soon as I saw it, I knew I should post it as a reminder the next time we have a batch of forest fires.
 
Well, it did not take long for that opportunity to arise.

In southern Ontario today – and throughout all northwestern Ontario – the sky is orangish, the air filled with ashes, and the sun red. Breathing is hard for some, and outdoor activities are unwise.
 
However, for those thinking that such supposed apocalyptic scenarios are new we need to be reminded of the wild weather over seven decades ago.
 
For instance, consider the following report on the smokey summer of 1950.

“For several days a thick haze darkened the skies over most of Ontario and the Great Lakes area of the United States. Smoke from the thirty forest fires raging in northern Alberta have been blamed for it. Officials of the Transport Department attribute it to the result of a freak wind for darkening the skies 2,000 miles from the scene of the fires. As it happened over Ontario in the midst of a sunny afternoon, making the sun appear blue, it caused a good deal of anxiety judging by the deluge of telephone calls which ensued. It has now spread east across the Maritimes over the Atlantic into Britain and Scandinavia, and even Gibraltar is reporting the ‘blue sun’ of which local weather men say, ‘we have never seen anything like it.’ Whether it is due to smoke rising about our atmosphere and being whirled around the earth, as was reported in the case of the eruption of a volcano on Krakatoa in the Straits of Sunda, it is impossible to determine with any certainty. At least it is an interesting phenomenon for weather fans.”
 
I am not interested in making claims about global weather trends, whether human-made or a natural cycle (or a combo of both). My point in this blog is simply that massive wildfires, runaway forest fires, and smoke-filled air are nothing new. In fact, in 1950, the smoke from Canada darkened skies across the Atlantic and into northern Europe.
 
So, we can relax a bit. 
 
Yes, we can work hard to protect the environment and make such fires less likely. But we can also remember that while the air is filled with smoke, and the forests burn, the proverbial sky is not falling and the world not necessarily on the precipice.