According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Calgary has surpassed a 2018 record of smoke hours.

"As of September 4, Calgary has seen 482 smoke hours; what we consider a smoke hour is when visibility is reduced to less than 10 kilometres by smoke. 482 [hours ]for 2023 breaks the old record from 2018 when there were 450, smoke hours," explained Justin Shelley, a weather preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. 

Although there is no specific data that pertains to Airdrie alone, Shelley surmised that because of its proximity to Calgary, Airdrie has likely also surpassed the same record. Shelley underlined that it is difficult to predict smoke forecasts due to the volatility of the wildfire situation, as well as wind directions.

"Considering the activity of wildfires ongoing in B.C. and the Northwest Territories, we can expect to see more smoke as we head into the next couple of weeks and likely through the end of the month," he said. "The month of September [looks like] below normal precipitation, through parts of [the] Southern prairies, as well as warmer temperatures. Without really large-scale cooldown, or large-scale ongoing precipitation events, we'll likely see those fires continue, and the smoke from them continue to impact our region."

When asked if there is any wildfire smoke from fires burning in the province, Shelley said that the wildfire situation in Alberta is predominantly under control, though he underlined that this does not mean there are no wildfires in the province. 

"There are still ongoing wildfires in Central and Northern Alberta [and] we certainly have some levels of smoke being emitted from those fires which would get caught up in the larger scale flow," he said. "Predominantly, we're seeing the most activity in the B.C. area right now, followed by the Northwest Territories."

Airdrie and the surrounding areas have been under a special air quality statement for the past few days and local forecasts are predicting the smoke to continue till at least Wednesday.

As of Tuesday morning, Airdrie's air quality index was rated at a five, presenting a moderate risk, which was a slight improvement over the long weekend. 

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, DiscoverAirdrie encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the DiscoverAirdrie app

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@discoverairdrie.com. You can also message and follow us on Twitter: @AIR1061FM