Some Relief Is In Sight

   And I for one am more than ready. Yorkton, and for that matter all of Saskatchewan, most of Manitoba and even parts of the U.S are still under air quality advisories due to smoke from northern forest fires. The reason we've been seeing, and smelling it, is simple. Upper level wind patterns have been from the northwest. That, hopefully, will change as early as tomorrow when those patterns shift and the wind will be from the south, at least giving some partial relief.
   The advisory is out, quite simply, because more than a few people (myself included) have breathing problems, and the smoke exacerbates it. I've been lucky, though. We have air conditioning at home, so it's been a simple matter of shutting the windows to keep smoke out. That said, we could still smell it very strongly earlier this week.
   And as annoying as it's been in my region, I pity the poor folks living in the north, where (as of this post) the smoke has already forced 41 hundred people from their homes. As of yesterday, there were some 110 fires burning in our province alone, with some quite large.
   What's needed is rain. Not just to help dampen the fires, but to help wash the smell of smoke out of the air. And while there are some showers in the forecast, what we need is a good day of steady, but not torrential, rain.

TTFN