Metro Vancouver extends air-quality advisory for region

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — It might not look like it is needed anymore in Metro Vancouver, but an air-quality advisory for our region is staying put for now.

The regional district’s Ken Reid says they’re extending the advisory due to uncertainty around what the wildfire smoke we are experiencing may end up doing.

However, Reid says they’re not overly concerned about major smoke issues at this point.

“There is a little bit of a shift in the weather tomorrow. We might see some more onshore flow that might clear some of the smoke out. So it’s not going to be a long event. And it’s certainly not at levels that we have seen some times in the past with wildfire smoke in our region. But it is still something that people need to be aware of.”

Related Articles: 

• B.C. wildfire smoke forces flight cancellations in Interior

• B.C.’s active wildfire count climbs as smoke descends on Metro Vancouver

While much of Metro Vancouver hasn’t been seeing wildfire smoke, it’s a different story in the Fraser Valley.

East of Abbotsford is seeing unhealthy air quality at the moment — but that is expected to ease up as the evening goes on.

Still, wildfire smoke is hanging around.

Fire Information Officer Jene Strong is hoping some cooler weather in the forecast helps crews.

“We also are anticipating a cooling trend coming into this week which would be great news for some of those bigger fires, especially that are burning pretty hot. The heatwave certainly didn’t help that we did over the weekend still experience some pretty intense fire behaviour, especially on that White Rock Lake fire,” she says.

There were new evacuations in some areas over the weekend late on Sunday properties here the White Rock Lake fire in the Central Okanagan were ordered to evacuate on top of other similar orders elsewhere.