Wildfire smoke from Alberta and northern B.C. settled into Kamloops and the Thompson Valley, Wednesday, May 17, 2023.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

The air quality is so bad in Kamloops today that it’s off the scale.

The provincial Air Quality Health Index runs from 0 to 10. Kamloops ranked as 10+ this morning, May 18, which is deemed a very high health risk.

That means everyone should reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activities. Those who are at risk due to things like asthma, COPD, heart disease and diabetes, are elderly or are children, should avoid outdoor physical exertion all together.

The North Okanagan came in at nine and the Central Okanagan at eight on the Air Quality Health Index, which both rank as high risk. There was no recording for the South Okanagan.

People living in the Okanagan are advised to reduce their strenuous outdoor activities.

READ MORE: Open burning banned across B.C. to curb human-caused wildfires

In terms of fine particulate matter (less than 2.5 microns, or millionths of a metre), Kamloops scored at 136.2 over the past 24 hours. Vernon registered 84 and Kelowna came in at 70.3. No reading was available for Penticton.

The smoke, which is causing the poor air quality, is coming from wildfires in Alberta and northern B.C.

“There are some good indications of clearing heading into this evening from some of the models that we look at,” Annie Seagram, air quality meteorologist with the Ministry of Environment, told iNFOnews.ca.

“The smoke is largely due to where the fires are but also due to the weather conditions. We’ve had a lot of smoke drift down into the southern part of the province due to the wind pattern and we also have this big high pressure system sitting over the province that has kind of kept things in place and kept the flow in that direction.”

That high pressure system isn't going to break down until the weekend but there is some relief in sight today.

“We’re getting some daytime heating going on,” Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon told iNFOnews.ca. “If it can heat up enough though the smoke, it’s going to reach a temperature at which we can get convection going and reach some thunderstorm potential this afternoon.”

That’s most likely to happen in the Okanagan which has a 60% chance of showers or thunderstorms later this afternoon.

Kamloops has a 40% chance of thunderstorms but is more likely to have wind gusts up to 40 km/hr so smoke should dissipate somewhat in that area as well.

“That will hopefully clear the air of smoke,” Seagram said. “We don’t know to what degree but we’re hoping it will be a nice clear out.”

The Air Quality Health Index is projecting a low risk by Friday night.

The high pressure ridge itself will slowly move eastward with more thundershowers possible as early as Saturday, Sekhon said.

There is so little moisture in the air right now that there is a risk that any rain will evaporate before hitting the ground and there could be dry lightning strikes.

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The forecast for next week is uncertain, Sekhon said.

At this point, it looks like temperatures will bottom out in the low 20 Celsius range on Monday or Tuesday then start climbing to the mid to higher 20s.

Kamloops is expected to be sunny with a high of 33 C tomorrow. There’s a 30% chance of showers Saturday with a high of 31 C, a 60% chance of showers Sunday then clearing with a high of 21 C on Monday.

For the Okanagan, highs could get to 31 C tomorrow. There’s a 30% chance of showers both Saturday and Sunday with highs of about 25 C. Monday should be clearer with a high of 22 C.

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