Canadian Wildfire Smoke

You might have noticed the haze and the smokey sky across southeastern Wisconsin this morning and afternoon.  You could even detect the smell of smoke.  Wildfires across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, over 1000 miles away, helped produce the smokey sky across Milwaukee today.

Take a look at the graphic above.  The upper level steering winds were moving from the northwest to the southeast today.  Sinking air on the backside of the trough allowed the smoke to mix down to the surface.

What's interesting is the smoke pooled across lake Michigan in the low-levels of the atmosphere, and was carried back across southeastern Wisconsin by surface winds out of the northeast.  That flow at the surface kept that smoke from clearing out across our area.


You can see the milky white color on the GOES 16 visible satellite channel.  It shows up very clearly.  It looks like the upper level pattern should shift enough that the smoke should clear later tonight and tomorrow.

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