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Smoke from Canadian wildfires reaches New England states

by Gillian Graham, Portland (Maine) Press-Herald |

Maine skies were hazy Wednesday thanks to wildfires that are burning out of control in western Canada.

The wildfires in Alberta and Manitoba have burned thousands of acres of land. The smoke from those fires is being brought to New England by an air flow associated with arriving high pressure, creating hazy conditions across Maine, said James Brown, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray.

“Sometimes that haze can be pretty thick. The sun is actually blocked out quite a bit,” he said. “As long as the flow remains the same, we’ll continue to get it.”

The smoke is aloft, meaning Mainers won’t be able to smell it and it doesn’t affect air quality, Brown said.

No health notices have been posted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, but the department did post a notice about the smoke from the Canadian fires, which can be seen in satellite images.

“So far it is remaining aloft. Sometimes in this situation we see sporadic, random spikes of particle pollution values for an hour or two at the most,” the DEP notice said.

The DEP’s air quality forecast indicates ozone and particles levels were expected to be good in all areas of the state Wednesday.