Stock photo of smoky conditions courtesy of Interior Health

By Liam Verster

Hazy Conditions

Smoky skies caused by wildfires in Washington

Sep 24, 2025 | 11:55 AM

The recent haze floating above the Okanagan was not caused by any local fires.

Matt Loney, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, told Vernon Matters the smoky conditions were the result of wildfires burning south of the border.

“[Satellite images from the past few days show] the smoke made its way in from the south, from fires in Washington state,” Loney said.

“There’s quite a number that are burning down there with the warm temperatures they’ve been experiencing. During the day the activity tends to flare up, and with the southerly feed that was coming in, especially Tuesday, that brought in visible smoke into southern portions of British Columbia.”

Conditions in Vernon and the Okanagan were still somewhat hazy Wednesday, though the skies were expected to clear over the coming days.

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“The air flow is [now] a little bit more from the southwest, certainly over Vernon, so it basically becomes a matter of trying to ventilate what’s already in the valley out of the valley,” Loney told Vernon Matters.

“So we have this background amount of smoke that’s not quite the maximum that it was [Tuesday] night, so there is some ventilation happening.

“We’ll see some wind [Thursday] and I think that should flush out what remains in the area, but in the meantime there’s not a lot of air flow to get things moving. So we might be stuck with it for another day until we can get some wind stirring up some mechanical dispersion and ventilation of the air shed.”

Loney added there should also be some rain in Vernon and the Okanagan starting Saturday, which should also help quell any local fire activity and reduce the smoke in the area.

The smoke caused a bit of drop to the air quality index, though not enough to warrant an Air Quality Advisory being issued. However, Loney did still advise people with pre-existing conditions avoid exposure to the smoke if possible.