The amount of smoke coming from the wildfires burning across Canada has gained our country a significant amount of international attention.

Saskatoon based Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang says over the past couple months, she has received a large number of calls from news outlets all across the world asking for interviews, including BBC, CNN, several United States affiliates, and Al Jazeera.

She adds that when the smoke from Canada reached the Eastern Seaboard, it looked quite apocalyptic and frightened a lot of people overseas. Lang says the wildfire situation has worsened in Quebec and Ontario, and that smoke is reaching the United Kingdom and Europe.

As of Monday morning, Quebec had 114 wildfires burning across the province, almost a quarter of the wildfires burning across the entire country. Twenty-nine of them are considered out of control. The smoke is so intense that water bombers and helicopters are finding it impossible to take off.

Ontario is experiencing very high levels of air pollution, and conditions are not expected to improve. Lang says Environment Canada is expecting another large ridge of high pressure to move in in the East, bringing warm temperatures and dry conditions, and ultimately making Ontario and Quebec’s situation worse.