Wildfire smoke appearing in late-summer Calgary encore

Calgarians were blessed with a balmy, sunshine-filled final long weekend of summer on Labour Day.

But just as the weekend was coming to a close Monday night, one of the more unwelcome parts of the summertime experience came back to the city.

“It honestly just rolled in out of nowhere,” said Mayank Verma.

“It’s kind of a pain in the butt,” laughed Ryan Tetrault.

Wildfire smoke from British Columbia and the Northwest Territories descended on the city on Monday night.

While a cold front and shift to northerly winds helped to blow some of it out by Wednesday evening, it’s still much more hazy than most Calgarians have come to expect this summer.

Despite not having to focus on it for much of the year, experts say the air quality index is worth keeping an eye on for the rest of September.

“For the one in five, for instance, who have lung disease, they’ve been acutely aware for a long time just how delicate that balance is,” explained Canadian Lung Association CEO Sarah Butson.

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“Canada, generally, has enjoyed some of the cleanest air quality anywhere in the world… but the past few years have been very tough.”

Some Calgarians were hoping to crack their windows at night for a reprieve from the heat.

“I like to sleep with my window open,” Verma explained. “But with the smoke it’s kind of hard — especially when you live on the 17th floor.”

“Ensuring we always have the best air indoors isn’t as easy (during this weather),” Butson said.

“If you have the capacity, look into air purification systems. There’s even some great do-it-yourself examples of that.”

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Despite the lingering smoke in the air on Thursday morning, people walking down 17th Avenue were still prioritizing the outdoor seats.

“The smoke is definitely not as bad as it was last year,” said Ernie Tsu of Trolley 5 Restaurant & Brewery. “We’ve still been seeing lots of action on all the patios on 17th.”

After a July to forget — despite that wet weather keeping the smoke away — Calgarians say they’re hoping summer sticks around for a few more weeks.

“The extended patios are viable until October, so we’d love to see the weather crack and be able to have the patios and the energy at all restaurants going until the end of October,” Tsu said.

“We’ve been really lucky this year, with all the extra rain keeping (the smoke) away,” Tetrault said. “I would take rain over smoke any day.”