ALBERTA, CANADA - Almost 90 different wildfires burning in Canada has sent a plume of smoke high into the atmosphere south into the United States. A milky white, hazy sunshine could be seen across Michigan on Tuesday along and behind a cold front that moved through.
While it may not be a common occurrence to see wildfire smoke from Canada, the set up in the atmosphere and Canadian high pressure helped funnel it into the area. Typically, we see smoke from western U.S. wildfires move into Michigan. On Tuesday, a back door cold front dropped in from the north and northeast. These fronts usually move in from the north and west, so the winds came in from the north and northeast directly out of Canada. You could see the hazy, thin layer of smoke about 20,000 to 25,000 feet above the surface.
Since our wind direction will still be from Canada and out of the northeast and north today, it's possible more of this hazy sky will appear again today. Check out the active fire map here.
Here's what the obscured sun looked like in Yankee Springs on Tuesday evening through the lens of Bob Kozminski.
Another high resolution satellite image below from NOAA shows the smoke plume across the Great Lakes. Notice the milky white imagery.
This smoke will eventually wash itself out of the atmosphere when rain arrives for us on Friday. Get the complete forecast at www.fox17online.com/weather.
