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| Widespread smoke and poor visibility is set to return to southern Quebec into Sunday. Numerous wildfires are burning out of control across northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The smoke has resulted in air quality alerts being issued across Ontario and Quebec as well as the Great Lakes, Upper Midwest, New England and the northeastern US. |
Air Quality Alert for the entire region.
Gusty westerly winds are expected to carry wildfire smoke from western Canada into the lower levels of the atmosphere in Montreal and Ottawa this evening and especially Sunday. An AQI reading greater than 100 will result in very unhealthy air for any outdoor activities. The smoke will be widespread across southern and eastern Ontario, southern Quebec as well as New York and New England. Poor air quality from fine particulate matter related to fire smoke, can result in burning eyes and nose as well as difficulty breathing.
Strong high pressure is expected to slowly drift across southern Quebec over the next few days, providing our region with dry weather well into the upcoming week. Gusty west winds and low relative humidity levels will increase the fire risk across the region. The Montreal region has had less than 1mm of rain over the last 16 days. The dry weather has been accompanied by very warm temperatures at times, with 9 days over 30C (86F) recorded at Trudeau Airport during the month of July.
Montreal also managed 138mm of rain, well over the normal amount of 91mm. Most of that fell during the flash flooding of July 13, when a new July monthly record of 81.6mm fell at the airport. That included 22.4mm in just 15 minutes. The intense rainstorm erased the July 10, 2024 record of 79.2mm.
So for the upcoming week, we are looking at smoke clearing by Monday, with sunshine and clear nights. High temperatures will be in the upper 20s to near 30C, with overnight lows in the middle teens. No rain is expected through next Friday.
