‘Everyone is coughing’

Readers’ experiences

Guardian readers in Canada and the US have got in touch to describe how they have been affected:

‘Bird life has been very subdued’

There’s a sense of being trapped. I am an outdoor person normally, and the air was too thick even with a mask yesterday. We’ve shut the windows, but even indoors everyone’s breathing is affected to some degree. Today I’m wearing a mask outside, but it isn’t enough to block the smoke.

The bird life has been very subdued. Yesterday they still made a valiant effort to sing, but today they couldn’t even manage a dawn chorus. The evidence of what they have to breathe is evident in the fine ash coating the exterior of the car.

We had a thunderstorm last night, but it didn’t clear the air; the only effect was that the air smelled of wet smoke instead of dry for a while. We can’t see the sun rise or set. During the rest of the day it’s a dim fuchsia colour in a yellow-grey sky. Jennie, teacher, Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada

'I have never experienced anything like this’

I’ve lived in Ithaca for almost 50 years and I have never experienced anything like this. My usual view, right across the valley to Cornell University’s towers, is obscured with thick yellow fog. Birds and squirrels seem unaffected, but I smell woodsmoke when I step out and it makes my eyes tear, and my throat scratchy. We have been told to stay inside.

June is so lovely here, cool and green, so it’s really hard to miss being out walking. I really feel for the Canadian people not too far north of me. Peggy, 79, retired, Ithaca, New York

‘It was like someone had an out-of-control barbecue’

On Wednesday it was like someone on our street had an out-of-control barbecue. As you’re walking down the street, you could see smoke.

Everyone is coughing. It’s not like a Covid cough; it’s like every few seconds you have another cough in the back of your throat. I checked the air quality in Detroit and it’s 171, whatever that means. I don’t really know what the numbers mean because we never talked about them before. What’s really worrying me about this is my parents are quite elderly and my dad has emphysema, so I’m trying to get them to wear masks when they go out.

I was happy to hear the US is sending more firefighters to Canada to help them. But I don’t know how much they can do.

Sandra, 55, Detroit, Michigan