Smoke Covers North Dakota- Where Exactly Is It Coming From?

Where there's smoke there's fire...ok, so where is the fire?

Don't just tell me Canadian wildfires. Could we be a bit more specific eh?

This from the National Resources Canada website

Generally one would assume if smoke would be flowing into Bismarck/Mandan it would be coming from the West.  I'm just saying that wind, rain, snow most everything that moves into our area generally moves in from the West. But...

Manitoba and Ontario seem to a pair of smokey suspects

Manitoba's having a helluva bad month...

There are 137 active wildfires in the province. Ten new fires were identified Monday — half of them in the east, half in the north — including one between lakes Winnipegosis and Winnipeg.

Lightning strikes are igniting Ontario

That being said, there's PLENTY of wildfires in the Western United States and Canada also contributing to the problem.

Take a look at this real time video of the actual patterns of the smoke from all those wildfires...click to watch.

This 72 hour map from Firework shows considerable clearing through weekend and into Monday...click here to watch that one.

So it appears the Canadian culprits are actually wildfires to the North and East of North Dakota.  Explaining why Fargo seems to experiencing much denser smoke than we're enjoying in Bismarck/Mandan.

Air quality in Bismarck/Mandan on July 30th, 2021 is listed as UNHEALTHY

Our current AQI (Air Quality Index) is at 165 and the main pollutant is something called PM2.5.  It's a dangerous microscopic air pollution whose particles are less than 2.5 microns in diameter.

AirNow.gov indicates that anything between 150 and 200 is unhealthy.

Some members of the general public may experience health effects: members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.

This is serious news, as my experience with social media indicates we are surrounded by "members of sensitive groups".

Agencies recommend wearing a face mask when the AQI is at an unhealthy level.  They can't mandate mask wearing, and thanks to the North Dakota Legislature, neither can this guy.

Sometimes I can't help but poke at them "sensitive groups".

Stay safe Canada!