By Greg Fry

Poor air quality in Kamloops

Aug 7, 2018 | 10:58 AM

KAMLOOPS — Update: As of 3 p.m., smoke concentrations had reached 112 micrograms per cubic metre. That’s down from today’s peak of 190 at 11 a.m.

Earlier: The smoky skies Kamloopsians woke up to this morning came courtesy of the wildfires burning in the Cariboo and Prince George fire centres.

“The smoke started building up in Kamloops overnight, as everyone noticed,” says Air Quality Meteorologist Ralph Adams with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. “We didn’t have much smoke last evening, the stars were out, it was clear. However the smoke had already begun to build up in Williams Lake and Quesnel on Sunday.”

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He says the current volumes of smoke in Kamloops right now is at around 50 micrograms per cubic metre, and is still increasing. (The normal range is 5-15.)

To put that into perspective however, Adams said it’s not even close to how bad the air quality was this time last year when smoke concentrations were in the 200 to 700 microgram per cubic metre range.

Looking ahead, he says conditions should start to improve by Friday when the high pressure ridge in Kamloops starts to lift.

In the meantime, he says people that have sensitivity to the smoke should curtail their activities.

“Even healthy people, they should be monitoring their conditions and if they start to feel effects from the smoke, they should take the appropriate action.”

by Greg Fry

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Poor air quality in Kamloops

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