The smoke and haze in the Prince George skies and surrounding areas are not caused by any local wildfires.
The Prince George Fire Centre says it can likely be attributed to the southern air mass flowing through BC, bringing smoke north from fires currently burning in Montana and Washington.
Fires from Siberia are also a likely culprit according to the centre, as the smoke is carried in on the jet stream.
Since April, there have been a total of 46 wildfires confirmed in the PGFS jurisdiction, however, all have been extinguished.
“So Yukon and Alaska have also been having a lot of trouble with smoke and haze, and with that high ridge of pressure when we had a couple of nice, sunny days, it drifted down towards us,” said Rachelle Winsor, Fire Information Officer for the PG Fire Centre.
The lower mainland has recently received quite a bit of ‘dry lightning’, lightning without precipitation, sparking multiple blazes, she added.
PGWS says the north is not at the same level of risk due to the wet summer months the area has seen, but it is something they are keeping an eye on.
“The majority have been human-caused,” said Winsor.
“We do have patrol planes out today, just looking to see if anything has started,” she explained, adding the north has been seeing unsettled weather patterns for much of the summer.
To date, roughly 200 hectares have burned in the Prince George Fire Centre, below the 10-year average of 65,000 hectares for the same period in other years.
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