While the weather around here over the last few days hasn’t been the most pleasant, it has done something positive- limiting our wildfire smoke aloft. This is set to change again into the weekend.
Hazy skies will return as the upper flow turns from north to south to more west to east. This will allow smoke which has been lurking to our west to push back into the region. Early returns suggest this smoke will largely remain aloft versus getting mixed down to the surface, impacting air quality. Certainly nothing close to the issues we ran into a few weeks ago.
WHEN WILL THE SMOKE STOP? Well, that’s a complicated answer. There are a few ways to accomplish getting smoke out of here. The easiest is to simply experience a change in the overall pattern. While wildfires will always exist, they only impact WNY if and when the flow aloft is able to carry those plumes into our region. These wind currents are often transient, which is why we go through periods where smoke goes away, comes back & goes away again.
The other solution would be Mother Nature helping put out active wildfire sources, of which there are several. Unlike a few weeks ago when the bulk of our smoke was being sourced from just northwest of Lake Superior, it’s the Pacific Northwest joining the wildfire party alongside additional Canadian wildfires. A strong area of high pressure across the heart of the country has been funneling this smoke eastward while simultaneously suppressing rainfall in areas that very much need it.
It’s a feedback loop that essentially keeps the fires burning and smoke pumping. For now, short-term clearing of the haze is likely to largely revolve around shifting winds versus a more permanent solution until seasonal shifts help solve the problem…