Smoke in the skies over Williams Lake is coming from fires in Colorado, Alberta and northern B.C., says Kelowna-based Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist.
“We have the smoke in Kelowna too,” he says. “It’s probably coming from two places. The first bout came up through Alberta from Colorado and back down originally, and there are also some fires in northern Alberta and northern B.C. so the smoke’s coming from a long way away.”
The haze began showing up in Williams Lake area on the weekend in conjunction with the arrival of hot summer weather.
Lundquist explains that satellite photos reveal the smoke travelled all over the B.C. interior and beyond.
“When I look at the map, it looks like most of B.C. was affected,” he says, adding he received inquiries from Vancouver asking where the smoke was coming from.
The smoke should clear off in the next couple of days because the flow will be switching into the southwest and will bring cleaner air from the Pacific, he says.
Recalling the fires in 2010 in the Cariboo and Chilcotin region, Lundquist points out that smoke from those fires travelled all the way to Quebec.
“We sent smoke across the country then.”
On Monday morning Cariboo Fire information officer Jenny Fremlin confirmed there are no new active fires in the region. So far the wetter than average spring is keeping the fire season at bay.