Forest fire smoke to return to Sask.: Environment Canada

Saskatchewan is getting a bit of a break after a weekend marked by thick smoke drifting into the province from forest fires in British Columbia and Alberta.

Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang said a shift in the wind had caused the smoke to clear Monday.

“That’s because our winds are now more from a northerly direction and there’s not a lot of forest fire activity in Saskatchewan. So, we can take a bit of a reprieve from the forest fire smoke at least for a few days.”

Lang cautioned that with large forest fires still burning out west, the smoke was sure to return through at least the rest of the summer.

“I think we’re going to see smoke on and off for the next month or so, at least until the fires settle down. It’ll depend of course on the weather pattern, but hopefully not as bad as we saw on Saturday.”

She said Saturday’s smoke was especially bad because changes in the atmosphere allowed the haze to descend closer to the surface.

While the smoke had prompted air quality warnings across most of Saskatchewan, the provincial health authority reported only a handful of visits to emergency rooms in Saskatoon and Regina by people affected by either the smoke or the hotter-than-normal temperatures over the last several days.

-With files from 650 CKOM’s Brent Bosker