Cold front drifting through expected to push smoke out of Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Day long weekend featured a campfire-like smell from wildfire smoke in many areas of the province.

Rose Carlsen, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the smoke should clear out of Saskatchewan soon.

“We are hoping for some relief midweek. However, a lot of these fires are still burning,” Carlsen said.

Environment Canada issued special air quality statements that blanketed much of Saskatchewan on Sunday and Monday. Many of those statements are now mostly gone — only two remained for areas of northern Saskatchewan on Tuesday — but the haziness from the smoke was still around.

Carlsen said the smoke drifted in from northern Saskatchewan, northern Alberta and British Columbia. The consistent northwest winds pulled the smoke over Saskatchewan into central and southern areas.

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency’s wildfire status webpage said there were 44 active fires in the province Tuesday morning. Of those, 10 were contained, 21 were under ongoing assessment, 11 were protecting property, and two were not contained.

Saskatchewan has had 391 wildfires so far this year, well above the five-year average of 324. On Aug. 1, Steve Roberts — the safety agency’s vice-president of operations — said the 10-year average for this time of year was 415.

A cold front is currently draped over east-central Saskatchewan and it’s slowly dropping down to the south part of the province.

“We’re hoping with the wind shift with that cold front dropping to the south, we’ll get some clearing in southern Saskatchewan probably Tuesday or Wednesday,” Carlsen said.

When the smoke gets really heavy, Carlsen recommended that people stay indoors, or even wear masks when leaving the house.