Updraft: July 2, 2008 Archive

Smoky skies

Posted at 4:12 PM on July 2, 2008 by Paul Huttner

Whitish tinted smoky sky over Lake Minnetonka today

Weather knows no borders. The winds don't follow rules, borders or boundaries. That's part of the beauty of what we call weather.

The result of that is sometimes we have to live with things happening far away in the air we breathe in our back yard. Today is a perfect example.

You may have noticed the hazy, whitish tones of our sky today. Smoke from fires as far away as California has drifted into Minnesota and the Dakotas. A big ridge of high pressure over the northern Rockies means the upper air flow at about 10,000 feet is running from northern California, northeast into Alberta and Saskatchewan and then diving southeast into Minnesota. With winds howling at about 50 mph at that level, smoke can travel over 1,000 miles in 24 hours.

The smoke is pretty dispersed and should not cause any health problems, but you will notices that milky white tint to the sky, and maybe some vivid sunsets the next few days.

You can thank California and Canada for that nice sunset tonight!

PH