Officials Fear Storm Winds Could fan Sask. Fires

Storm conditions and high winds on Friday could fan forest fires in northern Saskatchewan that have already prompted the evacuation of more than 2,000 people.

Residents in Sandy Bay, Deschambault, Black Lake, Stony Rapids, Uranium City, and Pelican Narrows have been taken by bus to Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

The evacuations were triggered largely by the presence of thick, choking smoke that put residents at risk.

By Friday morning, firefighters seemed to have gotten a handle on the multiple blazes.

Wildfire activity began to increase across the northern portions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada on 30 June 2008. GOES-11 visible and 3.9 µm “shortwave IR” images (above) showed a number of thick smoke plumes (lighter gray features on the visible images) drifting southeastward from a large cluster of active fire “hot spots” (darker black pixels on the IR images). GOES-11 was placed into Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) during the afternoon hours, so images near the end of the animation were available at 5-7 minute intervals.

Well I can see a ton of forest fire smoke on the satellite imagery over the southern Prairies from the fires out in Northern Sask and Alberta. Looks like after the cold front goes through tomorrow night/Thursday morning we may be seeing the effects from it high up in the atmosphere. So even though the forecasts/CSC may show clear skies on the days/nights following... the atmosphere could have smoke particles posing some challenges when it comes to astrophotography and faint fuzzy hunting. Depending on how thick it is it could make for excellent planetary viewing and beautiful sunsets/sunrises.