Smoke blankets much of Saskatchewan to start the week

If you're in the northern or central Saskatchewan, then you’ve likely been in the thick of the smoke – largely the result of fires burning across the province’s north.

"We've had 407 fires so far this year. Normally we'd have 274. So we've been very busy,” Steve Roberts, VP of Operations for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) told CTV News.

“We have a lot of active fires right now, and those fires are producing a fair bit of local smoke, and that's being added to some smoke that's drifted in from our partners to the west.”

According to Roberts, some of the smoke could also be coming from fires burning to the west in Alberta, adding to the intensity.

As of Monday there were just over 100 fires burning out of control in the province. Detailed maps of wildfires burning are available on SPSA’s website.

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The influx of smoke prompted Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to set Saskatoon's Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) at 10+ to start the week.

That’s concerning for people with breathing issues or those who are vulnerable, according to Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with ECCC.

"People who have those compromised respiratory systems often seek shelter or stay out of the smoke during these smoke events, but if we're combining that with very high temperatures and if they don't have air conditioning in their homes, they can get put themselves in dangerous situations very quickly," he said.

Proctor advises residents to check on those who may be alone and not able to access clean indoor air during this stretch of warm and smoky weather.

The smoke does lessen the intensity of the heat by a few degrees.

“We're basically running 32 degrees for daytime highs right through Thursday,” Proctor explained. “At this point, at typically this time of year, our daytime highs should be about 25 and overnight lows about 13. And our overnight lows are holding in that high teen value until we get to Thursday night into Friday morning.”

With more heat this week – the smoke will have ideal conditions to stick around.

"It’s taking any particles that have been put aloft into the atmosphere by the fires and letting those particles settle down to the surface very quickly,” he said. “So what we're seeing is just a fumigation event to a certain degree, if you want to put it that way. As that smoke just subsides and settles down to the earth's surface.”

Some of the smoke may be alleviated towards the weekend, but with so many variables like the wind direction, it's difficult to predict.

"The winds might be strong enough to sort of increase some of that fire behavior to the west of us so we may see more of that getting in,” Proctor said. “It's really trying to find that niche and find out where it's going to be, but we're likely to have less smoke from northern Alberta and less smoke from northern Saskatchewan towards the end of the week.”

He did go on to say that if the winds are strong enough from the west, the province has a chance to get smoke from fires in British Columbia.

Fire bans are in place for most areas of the province. It’s advised to check the status of specific locations before you travel.