There’s been quite the haze lining the skies over Airdrie and Cochrane lately and you might be surprised where it’s coming from.

“Basically, it’s the Northern Hemisphere fire season,” says Environment Canada Meteorologist Dan Kulak, “We’ve got fires in Alberta, fires in B.C., The Northwest Territories, Alaska and scattered all across much of Russia.”

You saw right, smoke from Russia.

“Russian forest fire smoke? Yeah, it does happen,” says Kulak, “We get dust from the Sahara Desert, hits the eastern coast of the United States. We have dust from the Gobi Desert in China sometimes affecting B.C. This is what we call long-range transport of stuff that’s in the atmosphere.”

As for when the haze will blow away, Kulak says it’s hard to tell, especially being in the middle of fire season.

“There’s going to be fires burning probably somewhere until September even October, it depends what the wind directions are and as the temperatures cool off and we get into the latter part of summer and fall, the fire behaviours tend to go down a bit. In general, depending on where the fires are and where the winds are, you’re gonna probably have days that are hazier than other days. Haze could be here and there and on and off for the next two months basically.”

The haze and smoke can also cause complications for some in the city, meaning you should be careful especially if you’re participating in outdoor activities.

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