We could be in for another round of smoke coming into the Kamloops area, starting later this week.

But Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist says any smoke in the air would be shorter-lived and less severe than the smoke we had earlier this month.

“But I don’t expect it to last more than a day or two, and not be as thick as last time. We had (Air Quality Health Index) of 10+ last time and I doubt we’ll get most maybe moderate or high this time. And if we do, it won’t be nearly as long as it was last time,” Lundquist says.

“It’s going to take a couple of days to get here and it has to work its way in a loft. So I think the earliest we’d probably see anything at all is Thursday, and it might be high in the sky if anything. And by Sunday we get a northwesternly flow that will bring in cleaner air. So sometime between Thursday and Saturday we might have some smoke.”

Lundquist says smoke is coming up from wildfires in California, and could reach Kamloops because of a ridge of high-pressure in the southern Interior.

“California can have fires anytime of the year. What is unusual is the ridge of high pressure that’s over us is very strong… Whereas if we have fires in California in a typical year we’d be in a strong westernly flow with showers and rain and breaks, and it would clean our air out.”