Potential for a less hazy sky to end the week

While cloud cover may increase a bit on Friday, at least we can say a partial farewell to some of the smoky skies we have seen most of this week!

The thicker upper level smoke has drifted off to the east of Minnesota and Iowa, and will continue to do so as we progress toward the weekend. It will still be hazy this evening and tonight upstairs, but Friday is looking a bit less smoky than what we have seen the last few days.

Guidance is showing thicker smoke continuing to drift east, but eventually stalling thanks to high pressure over southeastern Canada. Thankfully, this ridge is not close enough to us to keep the smoke around as prevalently for Friday and into Saturday.

In fact, guidance indicates that the upper level air flow pattern will help our neck of the woods enter a “safe pocket” of sorts from the upper level smoke Friday afternoon into Saturday afternoon. While this is just one model, and guidance is no guarantee, the trend is there for the thicker smoke to continue exiting the area, giving away to a more natural sky Friday.

Hard to say what the remainder of the weekend will look like smoke wise. The upper level trough approaching from the west may eventually lead to smokier skies again later in the weekend and into next week, but too soon to speculate any specifics at this time.

No air quality alerts are in effect currently, nor are any expected over the next few days. Healthy, smokeless air that we want around here, at least at the surface!