Southwestern Manitobans began to receive a sobering reminder on Sunday of the widespread devastating wildfires burning in California, Oregon and Washington state as forest fire smoke gradually pushed into the region over the course of the day.
By early evening on Sunday a light haze could be seen aloft over Brandon skies, noticably dimming the sun’s glow.
A satellite image shared by respected Manitoban Twitter Weather personality @robsobs showed how widespread the smoke had become on Sunday through Western Canada and Northwestern USA:
Smoke is expected to further push into the Southern Manitoba on Monday, remaining largely aloft where ground-level air quality is not likely to be as effected as the air several thousand feet up.
The air quality forecast for Brandon calls for the Air Quality Health Index rating to fall from Sunday’s value of 1 to a 2 by late Monday afternoon, still within the range of what is classified as “low risk.” Models on Canadian wildfire forecast service FireSmoke indicate additional spread of smoke into the area throughout Tuesday.
The overall forecast for Brandon published by Environment and Climate Change Canada currently calls for a mainly sunny day on Monday with a high of 22 degrees. Hazy skies at times are expected on Monday afternoon and early in the evening. Tuesday is forecast to be a mix of sun and cloud with a peak temp of 20.
Updated: Sept 14, 7:10am. Updated ECCC forecast