If you have family and friends in the Lower Mainland area, you’ve likely heard about their poor air quality today.
The region is currently being blanketed by smoky skies from a series of wildfires to the north and east.
In fact, Vancouver currently has the second worst air quality in the world, IQAir reports, registering an “unhealthy” 166 on the air quality index.
The only major city on Earth with worse air quality at this time is Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The skies are a bit hazy in parts of the Thompson-Okanagan today, but Environment Canada (EC) warns that it will get worse over the next 24 hours.
“Smoke is predicted to move into the Thompson, Shuswap and Okanagan regions during the overnight period,” a special air quality statement from EC reads.
The weather agency says the presence of smoke will be “highly variable” across British Columbia and can “change quickly” from hour to hour.
If smoke levels do increase, people are advised to limit their time outdoors and keep windows and doors shut as much as possible.
