Smoke From Canadian Forest Fires Creates Wild Skies In Chicago Area
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Distant wildfires have again created some hazy skies in the Chicago area.
Smoke from wildfires in northern Canada, have spread over a large portion of the Midwest, spreading as far south as Tennessee.
The smoke acts a bit like clouds, shrouding the sun and moon in haze. There was a similar haze creating smoky skies in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin three weeks ago.
"What happens is the smoke that is aloft leaves a hazy appearance in the sky. On a clear day, the sky is far less blue, and we typically see it has the appearance oftentimes of what we see during massive heat waves, when it's hazy, hot, and humid," AccuWeather meteorologist Bob Larson said.
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Larson said the haze could be around a couple days before moving to the East.
"We see this happen from time to time. It happened, as a matter of fact, just a few weeks ago, where upper-level winds – jet stream winds; generally between fifteen-, twenty-thousand feet up – are able to direct smoke over great distances, much farther than you would imagine, over several hundred miles, sometimes more than a thousand miles," Larson said.
It has been bad enough in parts of Iowa and Nebraska that the smoke has prompted health warnings.
On the plus side, it can create spectacular sunrises and sunsets, painting the sun and sky blood red.
