It was a short reprieve from poor air quality due to wildfire smoke that has returned to blanket the Cariboo.
Air quality meteorologist with the BC Ministry of Environment, Ralph Adams says this was predicted by Environment Canada rather accurately on Tuesday.
“The winds that had been pushing the smoke out towards the coast, primarily from the northeast, were now switching to coming in from the coast,” Adams explained.
“When that happens the smoke tends to come back in our direction because of the location of the fires.”
This according to Adams has resulted in the air quality index rising for Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Prince George, with the air quality in Kamloops and the North Okanagan also deteriorating.
He says while a band of precipitation is expected for our region and could possibly have an effect, realistically, however, given the number of fires, the size of the fires, the intensity of them, and the prevailing winds predicted to be from the west to north there is no certainty that the air quality will improve anytime soon.
“It only takes a concentration of 100 micrograms per cubic meter to shift the air quality index into the very high range because essentially that happens at 100,” Adams said.
“The values in Quesnel right now are 300 and the values in Prince George are almost 400 so it is very likely that the values in Williams Lake will increase to the very high range tomorrow.”
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