Canadian wildfire smoke brings hazy skies to Northwest
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The wildfire season in southwestern Canada is off to a blazing start with nearly 100 wildfires burning through the first couple weeks in May. The building blazes are sending a tremendous bout of smoke into the sky, which has been picked up by winds higher up in the atmosphere and carried south and east into the Continental United States, according to CBS Meteorologist Grant Gilmore.
Last week some of this smoke made its way all the way into the Northeastern U.S. and once again Wednesday morning another band of smoke from the Canadian Wildfires moved overhead – It was even visible from weather satellites in space!
Many people across the Delaware Valley woke up to colorful, yet muted sunrise and then a hazy early-morning sky Wednesday. In fact, that haze wasn't haze at all, but the band of smoke caught up in the upper-level wind currents tens of thousands of feet above the ground. And it was those tiny smoke particles high in the atmosphere that helped to refract more of the sunlight at sunrise and caused a more rich color in our morning sky. That said, while there was smoke in our sky due to the fact it was so high in the atmosphere, we couldn't smell it on the ground.
After a cold front moved through the Northeast Tuesday night, winds shifted to the Northwest, which allowed this band of smoke to pass overhead. The northwesterly flow then continued to push this relatively thin band of smoke to the south clearing the smoke out to allow more blue sky overhead.
The upper-level winds are not expected to carry more smoke into the Northeast again over the next few days, but it'll be something to watch out for as the wildfires continue to burn in Canada. Any system that tracks across Canada and dives Southeast into the Eastern United States could bring with it more hazy/smokey skies.
