Bermudians can still expect to see vibrant sunsets as smoke from wildfires raging across Canada continues to drift towards the island.

Smoke has been thick enough to be spotted in satellite imagery since June and is being tracked by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Air Quality Index.

NOAA’s map shows heavy bands of smoke blanketing the East Coast, with an offshoot — designated “light” — extending over the Atlantic, including Bermuda.

Michelle Pitcher, the director of the Bermuda Weather Service, said the effect on Bermuda was likely to be minimal because of our placement at the edge of the smoke cloud.

She added that our current forecast of southwesterly winds would likely push the smoke, which was coming in from a northeasterly direction, away from the island.

Smoke from the wildfires were confirmed last week to have reached the island, with the effects noticeable since last Wednesday.

The smoke in the atmosphere has caused the evening sun to become tinted red, as noted by many across the island and later confirmed by Ms Pitcher.

The pollution has also led to deeper hues of purple and pink during sunsets.

The Royal Gazette understands that the island’s air quality monitoring programme run by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, which was shut down in 2022, has yet to come back online.

Close to 250 blazes were out of control in Canada as of last week, with smoke billowing south over a swathe of the US.

It sent pollution readings higher on the East Coast, causing cancellations of public events in major cities such as Philadelphia and New York.

Flights were also grounded due to poor visibility, a problem that was compounded by bad weather.

The wildfires started in Alberta in late April and have grown in intensity as they joined with a separate set of wildfires in Quebec.

They have since spread across nine of the country’s ten provinces and three territories, displacing more than 100,000 people from their homes and destroying 9.4 million acres of forest. The fires are the worst in Canadian history.

The country has since received aide from the European Commission and countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.