Hazy skies linger as wildfire smoke moves through Northern Michigan

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13 hours ago

PETOSKEY — Skies across Northern Michigan had a hazy quality this week as smoke from Canadian wildfires continued to flow south.
According to Canada's National Wildland Fire Situation Report, as of May 30 there were 79 uncontrolled active fires; 21 being held; 57 controlled; and 22 modified responses. The priority fires are primarily located in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta.
More: Michigan air quality suffers from Canadian fires. Air quality alert for June 5
'There are wildfires going on in Canada right now,' said Jim Keysor, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Gaylord. 'We've actually seen that the last several years, that they've had a lot of fire issues up there. It's been very dry.'
Some of the smoke from those fires tends to drift south on what Keysor described as a 'a super highway' of air.
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'Really when you think about it, it's just the movement of air across North America,' he said. 'Basically, there's a super highway where air moves at very fast speeds way up in the atmosphere. And so those particulates from that smoke, they get picked up by that fast moving air and they move to wherever that air is going. In this case, towards the Great Lakes and the upper Midwest. It's just bringing it right down across our area.'
Several air quality alerts were in place during the week as smoke particulates created unhealthy conditions. For example, on Thursday, June 5, an air quality alert was in place for 15 counties in the U.P. and 11 counties in the northern Lower Peninsula.
Keysor said conditions were initially worse in the U.P., but by later in the week the area of focus had shifted further south. Rainy conditions mid-week actually made conditions worse.
'Really the middle of this week was the worst as we went into the Tuesday and Wednesday timeframes,' Keysor said. 'That was because we had another weather system that was moving through, and really what that weather system did is … it actually helped to bring some of that smoke from higher up in the atmosphere down toward the ground, so it actually made conditions worse for those that have breathing issues.'
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Along with red-tinged sunsets, people with respiratory issues may have noticed stinging, itchiness, watery eyes or other symptoms from the smoke.
'A lot of them are staying inside, they're running air conditioning if they have it and they're really trying to limit any kind of physical activity outside that could further make the problem worse,' Keysor said.
People have also reported being able to smell the smoke, although because it has traveled so far, Keysor said it often won't smell like smoke from a typical backyard fire.
According to Thursday's forecast from the MiAir division of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, 'air quality is expected to finally show improvement by the weekend.'
But, Keysor warned, it probably won't be the last time Michigan deals with smoky skies this summer.
'We're probably going to be dealing with this for a while, much like we did the past couple of years,' he said. 'Although things will get better from time to time, as long as those fires continue and they don't receive meaningful rain that's going to really help put those out … we're going to be dealing off and on with these smoke issues.'
— Contact Jillian Fellows at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hazy skies, air quality alerts linger as Canadian wildfire smoke moves through Northern Michigan