Smoky skies from wildfires ease up for a day
Wind blowing pollution from B.C. fires into Alberta shifted northwesterly
Aerobatic flyers dazzled audiences and runners breathed clear air as the Edmonton Marathon and Edmonton Air Show enjoyed a respite from smoky conditions Sunday.
The weekend began in an apocalyptic haze, reaching an air Quality Health Index high of 11, but steadily improved Saturday afternoon and remained at a low-risk three throughout much of Sunday. Saturday’s Eskimos game against the Alouettes went ahead as planned, leading to a crushing 40-24 victory for the home team.
The westerly winds that were transporting the smoke of British Columbia’s wildfires, which still threaten north-central B.C. communities, including Fraser Lake, St. James and Burns Lake, turned northwesterly, blowing down toward Calgary.
A charity bike race there was cancelled an hour and a half into the event and the city beat its previous second-place record for continuous hours of smoke, according to the YYC Weather Records Twitter.
An air-quality statement remained in effect for Calgary and much of southern Alberta into Sunday evening.
The Edmonton Dragonboat Festival at Telford Lake in Leduc moved its Saturday morning races and ran a condensed schedule for that day, said spokeswoman Nikki Van Dusen. Sunday was “everything as scheduled.”
At Villeneuve Airport, the Edmonton Air Show ran into challenges as some planes could not make it and had to be substituted.
“Obviously, (it went) better than I would’ve imagined on Thursday,” said executive producer Dean Heuman. “We hope people are happy and they understand we did everything we could to make the show the best show we possibly could under the circumstances.”
Attendance to the show was down, he said, but conditions allowed for pilots to perform two full shows without having to alter altitudes. The Edmonton Marathon adjusted by moving its kids event from Saturday to Sunday and offering a free distance decrease. About 250 took the offer, said organizer John Stanton, but run day was clear with good air quality.
“It created a lot of positive energy around the start,” he said. “It’s actually perfect running conditions.”
The marathon was also on track to setting an attendance record just short of 5,000, said Stanton.
But as the workweek looms, the situation possibly worsens Tuesday night into Wednesday as the winds change direction.
“And then unfortunately we do get back into that westerly flow so it is entirely possible that the smoke — possibly even heavier smoke and higher air-quality values — will return by mid-week,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Heather Pimiskern.
Smoke is particularly difficult to predict because it relies on determining the movement through mid and upper-level winds, she said.
No air-quality statements were in effect for the Edmonton area as of Sunday afternoon.