Southern Sask. sets smoke hours record as wildfires continue to burn

WATCH: Southern Saskatchewan is well on its way to breaking the smoke hour record for this fire season. Jacob Carr reports.

Those across southern Saskatchewan have had to contend with increasingly smoky days as wildfires continue to burn in the province’s north. Those who believe this fire season may be the worst in recent memory for smoke – may be right.

The northern wildfires aren’t the only culprit though, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

“What we’ve been looking at is a lot of smoke from fires not only in north central Saskatchewan, which has been bringing a lot of the smoke that we have been seeing recently,” ECCC scientist Christy Climenhaga told CTV News.

“There’s also been quite a bit of smoke this summer so far from Alberta and into Manitoba.”

As a result, smoke has been an issue Canada-wide, and that’s especially true in Regina. Just last month, 109 smoke hours were recorded in Regina, making it the smokiest month on record since the start of smoke hours data collection in 1953.

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A smoke hour is recorded when smoke has obscured visibility to less than six miles.

“This summer has definitely been different with the smoke,” Regina resident Jeanine Hackl explained.

“I’m trying not to pay attention to it too much, but I can definitely feel the heaviness on my lungs once I’m doing physical activity and things like that.”

Murray Kyle, another Regina resident, isn’t letting the smoke stop him from going out for walks with his dog, but he admits that he has never seen anything like this year’s wildfires – or the resulting smoke.

“Oh, they are terrible, I don’t remember them ever being in the news when I was growing up or anything like experiencing this,” he said.

Furthermore, ECCC says that April through October has the potential to be the smokiest on record for the entire season in Southern Sask.

“We have 215 hours of smoke as of yesterday. That’s second place to 2013 which had 263 hours, but that was all the way until October,” Climenhaga added.

“So, we’ll be having to see where this season stacks up when all is said and done.”