A thin haze over the Kamloops area today is believed to be from wildfires burning in the western United States.

Many residents have noticed the haze and reportedly smelling light smoke at times as well, and some have reported seeing ash fall on their properties.

This is all despite having no active fires in the Kamloops area, or anywhere in the southern Interior.

The BC Wildfire Service says it has received multiple reports today about smoke and haze, mostly in the Shuswap and Okanagan, and says it’s believed to be coming from fires in the U.S., saying that a southern air mass moving north has pushed in the light smoke.

The BCWS adds that there may be smoke from more burning going on, pointing out that Category 2 fires were permitted again as of June 19th, after they had been banned in mid-June. A Category 2 fire is any open fire that is within two metres high and three metres wide, apart from a campfire.

Some people have reported seeing air tankers flying over Kamloops as well, and the service says there were “practice drops” happening today near Chase and near Princeton.

It’s been the slowest start to a wildfire season in recent memory, and to date there have 187 fires that have burned only 658 hectares.

Last year, 825 fires burned 21,138 hectares across B.C. That followed two-straight record fire seasons; in 2017 1,353 fires burned 1.2 million hectares of land, and in 2018, there were 2,117 blazes that burned 1.35 million hectares.