Good evening folks, I just wanted to pop in / on / around / through these digital realms to let you know that the smoke impact from Canadian wildfires is likely to get worse before it gets better with potential air quality issues at times through the end of this week.

In terms of our weather (since smoke isn’t weather, per se), today’s smoke plume aloft knocked temps down by about 4-7 degrees from expected highs, and those highs came later in the day when we get got a bit of a break by mid-afternoon which allowed more solar radiation to reach the surface and push temps into the mid 80s to low 90s with a 94º reading in Amherst, MA.

Smoke has now pushed southeast and back over much of the region at dinner time and this will continue into tonight, so a freaky-looking sunset is expected, followed by lows hanging in the upper 60s to mid 70s with a few showers possible in SVT or SWNH by the later pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning.

As an update, Heat Advisories have been cancelled in much of WMass except for the southern Berkshires (lower Housatonic River Valley). Advisories remain for much of SVT and northern CT through 8pm Wednesday evening.

This is because a cold front is going to sweep the region later Wednesday morning from north to south, but not before dewpoint temps rise up into the 65-70º range through Wednesday mid-morning, so expect a warm, muggy start tomorrow.

The front will come through and keep highs from reaching much past the mid 80s to low 90s, with lower humidity tracking into SVT, SWNH and northern parts of WMass and CMass by mid-day, and then proceeding southward through Wednesday evening.

However, while lower humidity arrives, so will a plume of ground smoke, especially west of the I-91 corridor, so some air quality issues may result from that Wednesday later afternoon and evening. Lows will drop into the low to mid 60s.

By Thursday, we should start off in some degree of better shape, but it’s really Thursday night into Friday morning that has me concerned for very bad air quality potential due a thicker, and more pervasive plume of ground smoke that may track east from NY state and northern PA into our region.

If this comes to pass, it could last Thursday night into at least the first part of Friday, but I will update you on this as we get closer.

I just wanted to let you know what I was seeing, especially in cases where folks are older and infirm, or otherwise have respiratory ailments and issues, as extra care will be needed with Air Quality Alerts probable if these trends continue.

Thanks for reading, and have a great night!