View of Mt. Paul as seen from 4th and St. Paul in downtown Kamloops as of 11am, Sunday, September 3rd/via Paul James

A special air quality statement has been restored in Kamloops due to the onset of wildfire smoke.

Unlike previous alerts from Environment Canada, this time, the smoke is coming from fires not immediately in the area.

As of Sunday morning at 11am, the air quality reading in Kamloops hit 7 on the Environment Canada 10+ scale.

The international scale shows Kamloops in the “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy” range.

via iqair.com

Smoke modelling shows this current inundation of bad air quality is moving up from fires in central California.

The forecast indicates the smoke will continue to linger, fueled by fires in the Fraser Canyon, until at least Monday evening before coastal winds move the particulate off.

It follows a short respite from the smoke, which saw air quality in Kamloops drop below the threshold for Environment Canada alerts on Friday and Saturday.

View of the sunset in Kamloops on Saturday evening/via Howie Reimer

Even as the smoke once-again sets in, crews are continuing to make headway on the Bush Creek East and Ross Moore Lake fires on the opposite sides of Kamloops.

The BC Wildfire Service is anticipating better conditions through Monday and beyond on the Bush Creek East wildfire in the Shuswap.

“Monday will see a weak upper ridge cross the region giving temperatures in the low twenties with dry conditions and light south winds,” said the Wildfire Service in an update on Sunday morning.  “Tuesday will be cooler with temperatures in the teens as the next upper trough tracks over the region. Isolated showers are possible, and winds will be light to moderate southwest.”

Decreased fire activity earlier in the week allowed both the Thompson Nicola Regional District and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District to scale back evacuation orders and alerts this weekend on both the Bush Creek East fire and the Ross Moore Lake fire.