REGINA — The smoky conditions seen across Saskatchewan on Friday are expected to get worse Saturday.
Officials with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency warned of extreme conditions on the weekend. SPSA President Marlo Pritchard noted they were seeing a wind change, and that a lot of the smoke that has been "sitting for the last day or so will be moving south."
"And I can tell you that in the next 24 to 48 hours, the communities in the south of the province will experience extreme smoke conditions and air quality probably, probably air quality alerts," Pritchard said.
On Friday Environment Canada issued a special air quality statement for much of Saskatchewan due to wildfire smoke from the North. Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw were among those covered by the air quality statement.
Conditions caused the Saskatchewan Roughriders' preseason game with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to be delayed by an hour to 8 p.m. due to the smoky haze in the Regina area.
The smoke conditions did clear up somewhat in Regina in the evening to allow the game to happen, but the forecast on the Firesmoke.ca website called for even more and thicker smoke to be pushed into the province's southeast by Saturday morning.
The worst smoke conditions so far have been in the province's North in proximity to where the wildfires are happening. Already, the thick smoke is impacting firefighting operations.
SPSA Vice President of Operations Steve Roberts said that at their main response centre in Prince Albert, "we probably have a mile-and-a-half to two miles of visibility - that's how thick the smoke is here already from a firefighting point of view."
"It will reduce the fire activity because things are a little more moderate, but it will prevent us from using aircraft in some situations because of the poor villain visibility. And of course we can't get out ahead of some of these fires to look around again because of the poor visibility, so they will have an impact."
For this weekend, the expectation is there will be 36 to 48 hours of a southern stream, and then they should see the winds return "which would clear up the South and of course push that smoke back again to the North."
As for what people in southern Saskatchewan can expect to experience, Roberts said typically air quality advisories are issued by the Ministry of Environment that will have some recommendations. He expects they may recommend that those with respiratory issues stay indoors and in air conditioned areas with the windows closed.
"They may ask and recommend that people who want to go for the three-mile jog around the park in these conditions defer that because of the amount of smoke in the atmosphere. It'll be a little more damaging than normal, and it will affect things... it will be hazy. It will tend to be a little more hot and humid because the wind is fairly stagnant. And of course you will smell the forest smoke as long as it's coming from the North down to the South."
Officials with SPSA add that they have live updates on air quality statements at saskpublicsafety.ca, in a direct feed from Sask Alert.
