Look What Just Rolled Into Bismarck/Mandan

Bismarck and Mandan's natives literally were pointing to the skies this afternoon...

...and wow, the smells of ashes and wood smoke were thick in so many areas. Today is May 17th, Wednesday - this morning started out beautiful, and the weather forecast - temps in the 70s, and a chance of a thunderstorm. Nowhere on my weather app did it say that by 2:00 pm today Mandan would be literally in a fog, smoke from the Canadian fires blowing in. Check out this satellite photo taken two days ago.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images]

While sitting in our office, at our radio station here on the strip in Mandan, I started wondering if someone was barbequing behind our building

I wasn't the only one while walking outside I saw other people with the same look of bewilderment - the smell of fire was THICK in the air, one person who has lived here her whole life - said it was the worst she has ever seen, experienced. According to earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images "As of May 16, there were 87 wildland fires burning in Alberta, a quarter of which were classified as out of control, meaning the fires were expected to grow in size. A majority of the 478,000 hectares burned have been in Alberta, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, but several fires were classified as burning out of control on that day in British Columbia and Saskatchewan"

Here is the alarming part

"Smoke from the fires has caused poor air quality and reduced visibility in several cities. Wildfire smoke contains tiny particles called aerosols—some of which can degrade air quality and exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular health problems" reported earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images. There is no word on long this will be in our skies, but I'm saying it wouldn't be a bad idea to wear a mask.