File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Smoky Skies

Wildfire smoke creeping further south from fires in Alberta, Northern B.C.

May 27, 2019 | 3:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — What is already reality in northern B.C. is slowly making its way south: the dreaded return of wildfire smoke.

The province has issued a Smoky Skies Bulletin for the Northeast and North Central regions of the province. The advisory includes the northern Cariboo and the City of Quesnel.

“From the forest fires, we’re getting these smoky skies and some deterioration in the air quality at the surface, too,” said Environment Canada forecaster Bobby Sekhon, who notes the massive Chuckegg Creek fire burning near High Level, Alberta is only partially to blame.

“We have some lingering smoke from the Alberta fires, but also there are some fires burning locally as well. So it’s kind of a combination.”

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Sekhon says it’s unlikely the weather pattern will be of much help to the ventilation situation until later in the week.

“We’re not looking at a very strong pattern in the weather the next few days. It’s going to be fairly light winds aloft. However, we can hope for a little bit of a westerly push toward the end of the week to hopefully get some more influence off the ocean to try to clear some of the smoke out,” said Sekhon.

“We are seeing a bit of a shift coming in the weather for Wednesday,” he added. “Temperatures will drop a couple of degrees and we’ll get into a chance of showers as we have a bit of a low developing over the South Coast. That will give some instability to the Interior as well.”