Here’s smoke, there’s smoke, everywhere you look, smoke

Skiers and cloud-haters can often escape the gloom of a winter's day in the Okanagan by heading to the highest nearby mountain.

But there's no such high-altitude escape route available to anyone bothered by persistent grey-white smoky skies now blanketing the Valley.

“Right now, the satellite imagery is showing even many of the mountain peaks to be covered in smoke,” Tarek Ayache, a Penticton-based air quality meteorologist for the provincial government, said Wednesday.

“Winds from the west are probably going to bring good news for Vancouver Island and the Coast, with skies there clearing a bit in the next few days,” Ayache said. “Unfortunately for us, the smoke looks like it’s going to be sticking around for the next few days.”

For the fourth straight day, air quality in the Okanagan was classed as unhealthy on Wednesday as smoke from fires to the north and south clouded the Valley. The index was nine on a scale of one to 10, with predictions of a slight clearing today.

Beyond 24 hours, smoke prediction forecasts are generally unreliable, due mainly to ever-changing wind patterns and the unpredictable nature of forest fires, Ayache said.

Smoke concentrations are generally less during the day than at night, because the warmer temperatures promote more thermal mixing of the atmosphere, slightly dissipating the smoke, Ayache said.

“All things being equal, you would expect the smoke to be a little worse at night,” he said.

Environment Canada is predicting the same high of 27 C every day between Friday and next Tuesday. The weather service also says each day will be sunny, with skies clear at night.

For its part, The Weather Network says highs for the next six days will be around 31 C, also with sunny skies.