Smoke could move into Calgary on Wednesday

Despite Monday’s wet weather event, it didn’t take long for air quality advisories to pop back up in southern Alberta as wildfires continue to burn throughout the north in the Prairie provinces.

As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, no air quality advisories were in effect for Calgary and the surrounding areas, but that could change on Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, many communities along the Saskatchewan and U.S. borders were placed under the advisory, including Lethbridge and Crowsnest Pass.

There are numerous active wildfires in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The image above shows a possible track for the smoke based on the forecasted wind directions over the next 24 hours.

The source area of the Saskatchewan wildfires is not to scale and should be interpreted as a generalized area of where wildfires are currently burning and producing smoke in that province.

Winds on Tuesday were predominantly out of the north and will transition to the northeast in the evening.

Come Wednesday, those winds transition to the southeast at 20-40 km/h.

That could result in that smoke funnelling into not only the extreme south but the Calgary area as well.

But “consistently inconsistent” is the name of the weather game this week, and the setup bringing the smoke into Calgary will not be in place for long.

By Wednesday night, another round of rain will start to push in from the northwest, and by Thursday morning, the system is organized enough to portray the characteristics of a mid-latitude cyclone.

Models suggest we could get a heavy dose of rain and maybe even some thunderstorms on Thursday morning before the cyclone loses its energy and starts to break up.

This low-pressure system will keep us cool on Thursday with a high of 15 C in store.

On Friday, we regain some stability, though briefly, as we await a weekend that carries the risk of thunderstorms on both Saturday and Sunday.

In case you were curious, Environment and Climate Change Canada has posted some of the combined rainfall totals from Sunday and Monday.

Calgary, which was under a rainfall warning, received just shy of 50 millimetres out at the airport!