While it’s probably a short term meteorological phenomena with the blocking low off the Maine coast funneling all the Canadian wildfire smoke, it’s probably no coincidence that we are getting dumped on with a ton of wildfire pollution the year of Canada’s worse wildfires.

We used to think of wildfires and smoke they produce as mostly a western problem. It sucks to be them, we told ourselves. We all enjoy watching a freak show until it hits us personally. The truth is that is mostly a short term nuisance for most of us, except for those who have cardiac arrest and are hauled off in the meat wagon to never return.

The real question is this a one on phenomena that occurs every few decades like last happened locally in 2002, though this event probably was more serious with many air pollution meters pegged at their maximum setting, in what is being called the worse Canadian wildfire season ever. But humans have short term memory, and reporting and sensing of pollution has never been better.

It’s hard to dispute climate change is making wildfires more common, and that’s not just an activist talking point. Last summer and the year before we seemingly had a record number of gray summer days from high in the atmosphere wildfire smoke – and some brilliant sunsets to boot. But maybe because we are noticing it more from increased reporting in the press.