Maps show where Canada wildfire smoke coming from

CHICAGO (CBS) -- How bad are Canada's wildfires and where is all this smoke coming from? 

Several maps from Canadian government agencies as well as NASA in the United States help explain all that. 

This map (above) shows several hotspots in Ontario, directly north of Chicago. These hotspots represent fires from forests, grass, cropland, or logging debris. A hotspot may represent one fire or one of several hotspots representing a larger fire, according to Canada's Department of Natural Resources.

The question now is: How long will these conditions last? Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Chicago have acknowledged that making those predictions can be difficult, especially because Chicago doesn't typically experience these conditions.

The NASA image above shows a plume of soot from Ontario—spanning from North America and across more than 2,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean.  

CBS News reports 483 active fires were burning in Canada on Wednesday, according to the latest interagency tally. That's down from 490 active fires reported on Tuesday. The map below shows areas with the most fires. 

The highest number of active fires is in Quebec, with 113, down from 117 on Tuesday. British Columbia, along Canada's west coast, had the second-highest number of active blazes — 94, which was down from 99 the previous day — followed by Alberta and Ontario.  

The fires have damaged 19.5 million acres of land across Canada this year.  

The fire risk is high or extreme in most of the country (map above), which experts say is rare, especially this time of year. It is worst in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. 

The map below shows the historical norm for the number of fires in the country at this time of year.