SARANAC LAKE — An active wildland fire season across Canada, coupled with a persistent northwest wind flow, has carried another round of smoke into Tri-Lakes region.

The result has been hazy skies and potential air quality issues, especially for those with breathing sensitivities. The smoke intensified over the region Sunday and is expected to remain entrenched throughout the area today and possibly Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service’s Burlington, Vermont office, which serves the Tri-Lakes region. NWS Burlington Meteorologist Eric Myskowski said it’s tricky to confidently say when the smoke will dissipate.

“The smoke’s entrenched pretty far in place and now we have a high pressure that’s right overhead and there’s not much flow around to kind of move it out,” he said. “So now that it’s here, it’s kind of here.”

Myskowski said the key to improving air quality is getting the wind direction to change away from the northwest — as the smoke is originating mostly from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and a northwest wind means the Tri-Lakes get the atmospheric downstream effects of what’s happening there.

“We’ve been kind of getting this general northwest flow, so we’re bound into that,” he said. “Steering that smoke, you have a high-pressure system that’s over the Great Lakes and there’s clockwise flow around that, then you have a pretty strong low-pressure system over the Hudson Bay and there’s counterclockwise flow around that — and the smoke just goes between the two systems into our region.”

He said there’s a cold front approaching the region today. That, however, it’s expected to weaken as it moves into the area. Behind the cold front, the wind direction switches from northwest to north, ushering in relatively cleaner air from the Canadian province of Quebec, which is currently experiencing considerably lower fire activity than central provinces.

As of press time Sunday evening, Myskowski said the weather models currently show that the cold front is not advancing far enough to clear out the smoke for the Tri-Lakes area. This means that it could linger through the middle of the week at or near levels the area experienced Sunday, which saw air quality alerts issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“Right now, unfortunately, it’s looking like this front’s not going to make it all the way through the region and push the smoke to the south,” he said. “So now, it’s looking like it might be lingering into Wednesday, unfortunately.”

About 24,174 square miles of land have burned across Canada this season as of July 30, the most recent date the Canadian government has provided data through. That figure is more than double — 232% — of the 10-year average for land area burned by this point in the calendar year.

This comes as the total number of reported fires, 3,582, is slightly less than the 3,931 10-year-average for this point in the calendar season. This indicates that the fires that have occurred this season are, on average, larger than usual. For more information on the Canadian wildfires, visit tinyurl.com/mvr2c7rd.

For the latest air quality information from the DEC, including air quality alerts by region, visit tinyurl.com/4466y6tp.