Enjoy clear blue skies, because they won’t last

Wildfire smoke that has filled skies for much of this month forecast to return

The sun shone Monday across the Okanagan, giving residents a break from weeks of smoky, grey skies. However, poor air quality is expected to return, says a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

“We are not out of the woods,” said Armel Castellan. “There’s a lot of fires still burning, and a lot of smoke being emitted.” Monday was the first clear day in weeks. The B.C. Ministry of Environment included the Central Okanagan in its smoky skies advisory bulletin from July 19 to Aug. 2, and then again from Aug. 7 to Aug. 27.

“We still have it in the smoky skies bulletin because the smoke models indicate there’s the potential for smoke to return,” Graham Veale, air quality meteorologist for the Ministry of Environment, said Monday.

The number of days on the smoky skies advisory could overestimate the number of actual smoky days, said Veale.

“If it’s included in the bulletin, it doesn’t necessarily mean that smoke was present in the Central Okanagan, just that there was the potential based on weather patterns.”

Another way to monitor the amount of smoke in the air is by measuring the amount of fine particulate matter.

In July, the fine particulate matter in Kelowna was at an elevated level for one day, July 19.

So far this month, there have been 20 days of elevated fine particulate matter in the air, between Aug. 7 and Aug. 26.

“The monitoring station is in one fixed location, so it’s quite possible there could be days where there is smoke present elsewhere in the air, but if it’s not directly impacting the station we wouldn’t pick it up,” said Veale.

While Penticton saw a break in the smoke Monday, the winds are expected to shift from the west to a northerly flow today, bringing in smoke from the Nechako Plateau, where some of the province’s biggest fires are burning, said Castellan.

“Take advantage of the good moments of air quality that you’re experiencing now, because probably there will be some poor air quality on the horizon,” Castellan said Monday. “There’s so much smoke in the air at this point, it’ll be a long time before we have zero concerns for air quality. I’m certain we’ll see poor air quality before we see it return to better for good later in the fall.”

The next couple of days are expected to be in the moderate range for air quality, said Castellan.

“I think you have a three- or four-day window where things are not going to be terrible and . . . it might even be good during parts of those four days, but it could also be moderate. Beyond that, we’ll have to keep an eye on how the atmosphere behaves.”

Today’s forecast in Penticton is for a high temperature of 26 C with light winds, followed by a mix of sun and cloudy periods, according to Environment Canada.

Wednesday should be much the same, with a forecast high of 22 C and a 40 per cent chance of showers.

Normal for this time of year is a high of 24 C.