Wildfire smoke has crept into Kamloops for the first time this season, and it is expected to linger until the weekend.

Environment Canada forecaster Armel Castellan says a change in the weather system to blow away smoke probably won’t come until Saturday.

“Looking at the smoke modeling, it really is predominantly coming from the fires in Alberta. And we’re kind of stuck in a very stable, stagnant air situation right now with this high pressure. And it’s going to last another few days here,” Castellan says.

There are currently a handful of wildfires burning in northern BC and Alberta that are at least several hundred hectares in size. The largest fire by far is near the Alberta town of High Level, which has now grown to 130,000 hectares.

“Luckily you’re not alone in your misery dealing with the smoke again, I can understand that would a little bit disheartening, especially since we’ve had a couple years with a lot of smoke. But there is hope on the horizon; the (air) flow is going to eventually kind of build from the west again as we get closer to the weekend and through the weekend.”

According to Environment Canada’s forecast, Kamloops is expecting temperature highs of 31 and 32 degrees for each of the next five days, with no rain and very little wind forecast in the next seven days.

Castellan says he wouldn’t be surprised if an air quality warning is issued for the North and South Thompson and even the Nicola at some point this week. Right now there is such a warning in place for northeast B.C. and the central Cariboo, but not for the Kamloops area.