Smoky skies across Minnesota caused by western wildfires should improve Thursday

See that milky white sky overhead today?

Western wildfires are pumping a thick smoke layer across Minnesota today.

The elevated smoke layer produced a vivid sunrise Wednesday across much of Minnesota.

Thankfully, the smoke plume is mostly aloft. Air quality readings here on the ground where we breathe are mostly in the good range, with a few pockets of yellow, moderate particulate readings on Minnesota Pollution Control Agency monitors.

Improving forecast

Wind patterns in the western U.S. have shifted and are now blowing most of the dense smoke plume from fires in Idaho and western Montana northward into western Canada. You can see a break in the smoke plume developing in the Dakotas (in between cloud patches) today on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s true color satellite images.

NOAA’s HRRR vertically integrated smoke product forecast shows most of the smoke will move east of Minnesota on Thursday. The loop below runs from 1 p.m. Wednesday to 7 p.m. Thursday.

So look for a little more blue in the sky overhead Thursday.