Wildfire smoke at sunset, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — Smoke from Canadian wildfire has overspread the central United States but the air quality in the Tri-Cities area remains good.
The smoke from the ongoing wildfires has been caught by the upper level winds, influencing how it is spreading.
“As of this morning, the ridge extends well into northern Canada, even reaching into the Northwest Territories. There are numerous wildfires across northern Canada with smoke from the wildfires getting caught in the upper level flow and transporting south across the United States,” according to the National Weather Service – North Platte.
The smoke is quite apparent in weather satellites images and looks to remain over the local area for the next 48 hours. Visibility at the surface should not be strongly affected, but skies will appear hazy.
As a result, according to U.S. Air Quality Index, conditions remain good in Kearney, Grand Island and Hastings.
“As the ridge amplitude decreases, it may start to shift south of the area of greatest fires, possibly bringing less smoke across the region in the coming days,” NWS North Platte notes.
