British Columbia has declared a state of emergency due to the almost 600 wildfires that are plaguing the province. Hot, dry weather conditions have made the situation worse, along with lightning strikes causing even more fires to add to the problem.
The smoke from the BC fires has been pushing it's way into Alberta and is creating very poor air quality and air advisory warnings from Environment Canada to be issued. The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) indicates that air quality is forecast as a 10 (High Risk) for Friday August 17, and 9 overnight and into Saturday. Moving into the weekend it should drop to a moderate risk of 5.