Map showing wildfires and air quality around British Columbia

If you’re hiding indoors to escape the smoky haze shrouding Vancouver right now, we’ve found a new data map to help you to pass the time.

The map shows all the wildfires currently raging in British Columbia and combines them with the latest air quality ratings around the province.

According to the latest update from Kevin Skrepnek, BC’s Chief Fire Information Officer, there are currently 146 wildfires burning around the province.

Since April 1, BC firefighters have responded to 928 wildfires, which have burned an estimated 604,000 hectares of land.

That’s roughly 604,000 sports fields, or an area 52 times the size of Vancouver.

Much of the smoke from the wildfires is being blown over to Vancouver in the form of harmful fine particulate matter.

This not only swallows up the mountains behind a wall of white, smoky haze, but reduces the air quality significantly.

At the time of writing, Canada’s Air Quality Health Index put Vancouver’s air quality at 7 – a high health risk that can affect everyone.

See also

• Smoky haze in Metro Vancouver could become the 'new normal'
• 911 calls for breathing problems up since smoky haze arrived in Lower Mainland
• Vancouver has worse air quality than Hong Kong right now

The new map, produced by the PNW Smoke Cooperators, aims to keep the public informed of the wildfires and air quality in the Pacific Northwest.

The cooperators group is based in Washington state and is the collective effort of county, state, federal and First Nations agencies.

Click here to see the interactive map: haze.airfire.org.