Thick smoke sinks into Okanagan; air quality ranked among worst in the world

Thick wildfire smoke has seeped into the Okanagan Valley, casting a pall on what would otherwise be a sunny summer weekend.

Depending on where you look, the situation goes from bad to worse.

Using the province’s Air Quality Health Index site, the greater Kelowna area was rated at a six out of 10, meaning the air poses a moderate risk to human health.

The North Okanagan saw a rating of eight, which is a high risk and the South Okanagan was at three, which is a low risk.

A site called IQAir assigns a numeric value to the air quality, and there Kelowna was sitting at 162 by Friday afternoon, which is deemed unhealthy. According to the site, Kelowna’s  PM2.5 concentration, a measure of particulate matter in the air, is currently 15.6 times the World Health Organization’s annual air quality guideline.

If the Okanagan city were large enough to be ranked among the site’s list of the dirtiest air in the world, it would be second worst, right below Dubai, United Aram Emirates, and above Nairobi, Kenya.

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Gail Roth, a senior air quality meteorologist with the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, said she can’t speak to how other sites rank air quality but the data is likely pulled from the same source.

More importantly, however, ongoing heat is stoking fire activity and that’s creating some soupy air, particularly in the Okanagan.

She did, however, note that in recent years the number of days with poor air quality has grown.

“Since 2017, we have been seeing much more, higher concentrations of wood smoke for longer durations and it will change regionally from year to year in the province, but in general, we certainly are seeing an uptick in wildfire smoke,” she said.

This weekend will likely add to that statistic.

“If you look at satellite images in the last 24 hours, there’s a bit of a southerly flow, so there’s quite a bit of smoke coming from the Adams Lake wildfire and trickling down through the valley there,” Roth said.

For the Okanagan, Roth said the smoke is thicker in the north, near Vernon, becoming increasingly heavy and high risk in Kelowna and is somewhat moderate in the South Okanagan and no great improvement is expected in the days ahead, though she pointed out that smoke forecasting can be difficult.

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“According to the models right now, what we have is a high-pressure system right over the centre of the province and it’s getting stronger,” she said.

“So for the next couple of days, we do expect to see some smoke in the Okanagan. The weather isn’t such that it’s going to move smoke out of the area very well, plus there are active fires happening. So for the short term, expect a bit of smoke in the Okanagan.”

The prospects for clean air next week, however, remain to be seen and what that means for health is different for different people.

“When it gets to the high-risk categories, that’s when it gets more restrictive,” Roth said.

“And what I would recommend us for folks to look at our bulletin. But, in general, if you’re someone who has pre-existing conditions, you may be more sensitive. And  healthy  younger populations may be less sensitive.”

In general, however, a high ranking means it’s time to pay attention to what you do, she said.

“Definitely pay attention to your symptoms because everyone is different.”