Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Some relief from poor air quality

When I posted yesterday morning I did not realize the extent of the smoke invasion from the forest fires here in Quebec. Bridget left me a comment about the smoke reaching Kemptville, and I noticed the visibility in Ottawa was quite low most of the morning, actually lower than here in Montreal. In addition to Ontario, advisories for the smoke were issued in New Hampshire, Vermont and New York and reports were received from as far south as Cape Cod. So what many thought was there own home on fire, was actually encompassing thousands of square kilometres.

This morning a welcome rain is falling across southern Quebec. The rain is scrubbing the air and helping knock down the dust and smoke. It will be beneficial for all regions regardless of how much falls. Radar is showing a wide area of rain in eastern Ontario and western Quebec that will slowly move east this morning. The relief will be short lived as Smog Warnings are already in effect for the metro region for later today and tomorrow. Warm and humid air will move back into the region overnight. Relief will arrive in the form of a cold front overnight tomorrow into Thursday morning.

June 1st is the official start of the Atlantic tropical season. We already had a taste of this last week as that non tropical low east of the Carolina's produced rough surf, beach erosion and lead to the deaths of at least 3 swimmers along beaches from new York to Florida. Forecasters are predicting a very active season with as many as 23 named storms, with up to 11 becoming hurricanes and several of those major storms (category 3 or higher). I will be watching the tropics closely as I have been since 1979, and several of the links on the left side of this blog will provide you with current information 24/7. Over the weekend the Pacific storm season began when Tropical Storm Agatha came onshore along the Guatemala/Mexican border. The heavy rains produced flash floods that killed at least 144 people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. More information can be found HERE

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