Between the bouts of rainfall, have you noticed the brilliant skies at sunrise and sunset? Or maybe the dull skies on a nearly cloud free Monday? Well you can thank fires over Canada and a northerly flow for the smoke.

For the early part of the work week, we would normally see some nice blue skies with the drier north to northwesterly flow. But because the fires are to our northwest over portions of Ontario and Manitoba in Canada the winds aloft are pushing this smoke towards us.

Over the next couple of days, a weak frontal boundary to the north will slide south. Ahead of it, we will see weak north winds at the surface, and a northwest flow aloft. This will amplify a bit for Wednesday and increase our chances of seeing even smokier skies.

As you can see in the animation at the top of the page, it does appear the smoke will increase a bit Tuesday afternoon, and especially Wednesday afternoon. While it makes the sky look muddy during the days, it is providing beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and should not cause much of an issue at the surface for air quality.

Even better if you are not a fan of the smoke, a wind shift should get underway by later this work week, and should start to clear our skies, right in time for rain and thunderstorms to return.

If you do take some beautiful pictures of the sunrises/sunsets and the smoky skies, you can always share them with us (we love seeing them) stormteam4@wcmh.com

-Dave