Smoke from British Columbia wildfires rolling south to spoil Tri-Cities skies

Tri-Cities area skies are expected to be hazy through Saturday as smoke drifts south from wildfires in British Columbia.

The worst of the smoke should be to the north of the Tri-Cities, and no air quality issues were reported by the Benton Clean Air Agency as of Friday morning.

Dozens of wildfires, some of them major, are burning across British Columbia due to lightning strikes and hot, dry conditions. Among places that burned are Lytton, the town that set the new heat record of 121 for all of Canada during the current heat wave.

In the Tri-Cities this holiday weekend, Saturday is expected to be the hottest day with a high of 103.

The Fourth of July should see a high just below 100, with a days-long excessive heat warning set to expire at 8 p.m. that day.

Temperatures are not expected to be as hot in the coming week as earlier forecast.

Highs should be in the upper 90s Monday through Tuesday, dropping to 96 on Wednesday and 93 on Thursday.

Early forecasts had called for highs to remain in the 100s for most of the week.

However, temperatures are then expected to be back in the triple digits from Friday, July 9, through Wednesday, July 14, according to the Weather Channel, which posts a two-week forecast for the Tri-Cities.

This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 10:13 AM.