Why has it been so hazy in Airdrie lately?

You may have noticed that Airdrie over the past few days has been a little smoky, here is why. 

Kyle Fougere, a Meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada mentioned that the past couple of warm months does have something to do with it. 

“The warm and dry conditions that we've had in place over the last couple of months, it has been led to a pretty nice fall, but unfortunately, had has also extended our forest fire season in Western Canada.  We've had a number of forest fires that have developed over southern British Columbia and Western Alberta.” 

Over the past couple of days, we have been seeing that smoke blow into Alberta. 

“This ridge of high pressure that we have in place that you have sinking air; that prevents the clouds from forming and gives us these warm temperatures, but can also trap pollutants near the surface. So we're seeing a buildup of that smoke at the surface here in Alberta. And it's led to some air quality conditions that have been in the moderate risk category on our air quality health index for the last couple of days.” 

With this cold front moving in that could possibly bring snow, it will help clear out the smoke. Fougere mentioned he believes Thursday was the last day with hazy weather but with multiple northern Alberta fires active as of right now the northern winds could possibly bring in more smoke. 

There are over 50 forest fires active in Alberta, with only one deemed out of control. Most of these fires are in the far northeast end of the province. 

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