Smoke prompts warnings from Alberta health experts, restrictions on outdoor activities

The smell and taste of smoke hung heavy in the air across much of Alberta Wednesday morning, as wildfires in northern B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan continue to burn, sending a thick blanket of smoke south across most of the province.

The air quality health index — which rates air quality on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst — was listed as 10+ or “very high risk” in Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer on Wednesday morning.

View image in full screen

The heavy smoke prompted Environment Canada to issue Air Quality warnings for most of the province — stretching from Peace River country in the north, south to the border with Montana.

The national weather agency warned about spending too much time outside because of the health risk — especially for people who are over the age of 65, infants and young children, people with pre-existing or chronic health conditions, anyone who is pregnant and people who work outdoors.

Even those who don’t need to spend time outdoors are being advised to keep doors and windows closed as much as possible and consider the use of ventilation system or portable air cleaner to help filter out the smoke particles.

School boards are warning that some outdoor events may be cancelled or rescheduled.

Several track meets in Calgary have already been cancelled, and the Edmonton and District Soccer Association may be forced to cancel dozens of soccer games.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“We have 34 games (Wednesday night) and 35 (Thursday), so depending on what the conditions are, we could lose as many as 70 games,” said executive director Mike Thome.

“The challenge, of course, is when you cancel games now you’ve got to find another place to play them – and as we get later into the summer then we start to run out of runway to get games played.”

1:51 Doctors warn about short, long term impacts of poor air quality from wildfires

More information about the dangers of wildfire smoke and how to reduce your health risk is available online at canada.ca/wildfire-smoke.

Details on the current air quality health index are also available online at airhealth.ca.

View image in full screen

As of noon on Wednesday, there were 59 wildfires burning in Alberta, with most of them in the northern part of the province and 23 of them considered out of control.

While the fires have been fuelled by some record hot and dry conditions, there could be some temporary relief on the way.

“Right now, Alberta is under a ridge of high pressure,” said Global Edmonton weather specialist Phil Darlington.  “But this ridge is on its way out. We expect less heat through Thursday and Friday.”

In Grand Prairie, one of the hardest-hit areas of the province, the forecast high for Wednesday is 22 C — a few degrees above normal — but on Thursday it’s supposed to drop to around 15 C,  about 5 C below normal.

View image in full screen

There is also some rain in the forecast that could help firefighters.

“It will definitely buy us some time. It’s going to be a huge help for the firefighters that are on the ground as well as aircraft support,” said Alberta wildfire information officer, Melissa Story.  “We are hoping to make progress over the coming days.  It won’t put these fires out, but it will help to reduce fire behaviour and give us some gains over the upcoming days.”

However, the change in weather could also increase the number of lightning-caused fires.

“With the ridge moving out later this week there is a chance of rain and thunderstorms returning,” said Darlington.  “After a hot spell like the one currently being experienced, the potential for thunderstorms with severity are more likely.”

Even if there is some significant rainfall,  Alberta firefighters are preparing for a busy summer.

Environment Canada’s summer forecast, released on Tuesday, predicts most of the country will experience a warmer-than-normal summer with “uncertain precipitation levels” in most provinces.

“July was the busiest month in 2024 — we saw a lot of lightning events that happened in that month,” said Story.

“We burned about 90 per cent of the entire seasonal hectares in the month of July.  We saw about 10 times as many lightning strikes as we typically do during that month.  So we’re preparing for whatever will come this summer.”