Smoke & Air Quality Alert Extended For Wyoming

The western side of Wyoming might notice a light haze, through Wednesday. But clearing toward the weekend.

The more east we look the worse it gets.

Air quality alerts have been posted and extended from Casper up to the very northeast corner of the state.

We could talk numbers, but it's probably best to go with a visual representation on this one.

Red is bad.

Higher numbers are bad.

Based on the map below, be glad you're not in the Dakotas or Nebraska.

The map above is provided by AccuWeather. They are a good source for hour-by-hour updates with lots of details.

Montana is not doing so well either.

The smoke is coming from some intense first in Canada.

We've had a lot of rain down in this part of the continent.

Canada has not been so lucky.

Let's take a look at a wide-angle map to show where all of this is coming from.

As you can see, below, when it comes to smoking almost everybody is getting something.

This map comes from the Fire And Smoke Map that you can find online.

It's a good idea to check in with this map during fire seasons should you have breathing problems.

Looks like Montana is not the place to be right now.

Let's zoom into Wyoming and see who has it the worst.

Again, the western side of the state is not as bad.

Advisories will be based, literally, on how the wind blows down from Canada and across the United States.

Those green dots mean, hazy, but not bad.

Yellow, take caution.

If you are under a red dot, like Gillette, you'll want to take precautions if you have breathing problems.

Wearing face masks, like some people did during COVID-19, doesn't help.

Face masks can filter out particles, it will not filter out toxic gases and fumes. The biggest concerns with wildfire smoke are“ fine inhalable particles” or PM2.5 which are particles that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller. These particles are small enough to get into the smallest airways of your lungs. (FORBS MAGAZINE).

This is also why cloth and paper masks were not effective against COVID-19, which is much smaller, by far, than a smoke particle.

The air filtration system through a good quality home or office AC will prove better, though not perfect, filtration.

Watch and listen to your local weather, plus visit the air quality link for updates.

This smoke might just be with us for another day.

But winds will be moving the smoke to the east by the end of the week.

We will keep you posted.