13 ON YOUR SIDE Forecast: Smoky Skies Continue; Spotty T-Storm Chance Friday & Saturday

[00:00:00]Blake, if it wasn't for all that wildfire smoke, it would have been a sunny day here in West Michigan.

[00:00:04]>> We would have enjoyed a blue sky galore, Juliet. Yeah, pretty unfortunate to contend with this amount of wildfire smoke. We're right in the bull's-eye of the resultant flow from the origination of these wildfires just to the north of Thunder Bay in Western Ontario, even stretching into northern Minnesota. But, of course, air quality has been poor, hazardous all day long, even stretching back to yesterday evening. Not only is this aloft in our atmosphere, well, it continues to mix at ground level. And you can see all around West Michigan that evident layer of smoke. As for the view at Mackinac Bridge farther up north, them too still contending with smoke. Look at that view at the Mighty Mac. Yeah, you can barely see the bridge over the Straits of Mackinac. And there it is, where these fires originate in far northeast Minnesota to the north of Thunder Bay in Western Ontario. And the wind flow has allowed that plume of smoke to continuously drift into the Great Lakes region, us here in West Michigan, over the past 24 hours. No surprise, air quality continues to be very unhealthy to downright hazardous all around the Great Lakes region, including us here in West Michigan.

[00:01:23]Visibility, because of the smoke near ground level, has been in and around 1 mile, and likely not going to see any improvement through tonight and even into tomorrow. But a question that does arise when we contend with wildfire smoke is why does it smell more like plastic or a chemical odor compared to the typical wildfire or campfire smell?

[00:01:48]Well, in large part, it all starts with when these wildfires originate, they cause a plume of hot air and smoke to rise. And as that smoke rises, it get caught it gets caught up aloft in our atmosphere, well aloft. And that smoke travels via the jet stream, via the resultant wind field, hundreds if not even thousands of miles. And as it does so, as it's aloft in our atmosphere, that smoke, the gases from that smoke, starts to interact with UV radiation resultant from the sun. That plus some other factors forms new compounds as it reacts with those smoke gases. And now that aged smoke containing the new compounds has that plastic-like smell, that chemical odor to it as the smoke aloft mixes back down to the surface.

[00:02:39]And we have seen that via high pressure, that sinking air mass allowing for the aged smoke to make its way back near ground level and having more of that plastic or chemical smell compared to a regular campfire. As for air quality tomorrow, it will remain quite poor, very unhealthy to at times hazardous.

[00:02:58]But the expectation is that we may see some brief relief by the end of tomorrow, and that is due to the wind direction. Not much change through tomorrow morning, but as the day goes on tomorrow, we'll start to see that wind come out of the south and west. And that will allow the dense fog, or dense smoke I should say, not fog, smoke, to scurry out to the north and east. Notice our hour-by-hour forecast, no changes through tonight. We are going to remain quite smoky aloft and near ground level.

[00:03:27]But as tomorrow goes on, second half of the day, we'll gradually see southwest to northeast that dense smoke lift out of here. But it may be just brief in duration. We'll get a bit of a break Friday night and a Saturday, but as our wind turns back to the north comes late Saturday and a Sunday, we may see additional smoke work its way back into West Michigan. 13 weather ball is solid green, no change foreseen in our temperature. Spotty thunderstorm chance tomorrow, but more dry time than any amount of wet weather. Daytime highs today tempered from the dense smoke overhead. Upper 80s to around 90, still a bit above average for the 16th of July. I think we'll do this all over again tomorrow. Temperatures tonight falling into the 60s, tomorrow into the upper 80s to near 90. But in due time, low pressure and its cold front, that's going to drive our weather, especially come Saturday. Now, in the meantime, our by our forecast, just smoky skies through tonight and into tomorrow morning. We may contend with a few pop-up showers, perhaps a few thunderstorms as the day goes on, but notice the coverage looking very localized in nature. So, by far more spots will stay dry tomorrow than any amount of wet locations. Kind of a similar story on Saturday. Here comes the cold front for the first half of the weekend.

[00:04:42]The problem is is that this cold front is coming through in the morning to early afternoon, not during the peak heating of the day. So, while we may contend with a few thunder showers on Saturday, it's out of here in a hurry, and maybe many of us still avoiding any true rain chance. So, we'll watch that spotty thunderstorm chance Friday and Saturday. Sunday will be dry, but Juliet, we do need to be on the outlook for maybe additional smoke returning to West Michigan.

[00:05:08]>> Well, that explanation about the smoke is so interesting.

[00:05:12]>> Yeah, it's all all about the chemical breakdown of those smoke gases, the compounds with that smoke. They become more organic in nature, and that's what causes that plastic [music] or chemical odor.

[00:05:25]>> Makes a lot of sense. Thank you, Blake.