Smoke from the Fort McMurray fire made its way down to Athabasca on May 19. See an interactive map showing the winds of the day, and how they moved the haze southward.
Athabasca County and surrounding areas had some cancellations of soccer, football, and other outdoor related activities due to the recent smoke from the wildfires in Northern Alberta.
The government of Canada issued an air quality statement on the May 19, saying smoke from the wildfires near Fort McMurray had been brought south due to northerly winds.
This smoke left Athabasca covered in a blanket of smoky haze for almost two days.
With the thick haze creating poor air quality for both children and adults, schools cancelled some of their outdoor programs and the Athabasca Soccer Association cancelled all games and practices in both Athabasca and Boyle.
“We sent an email at about 12:50 p.m. saying the decision had been made to cancel the activities, ” said Evan Wagner, communications director for the association. “It was just because of the poor air quality. We determined that it was just sort of a safety and health issue, potentially. ”
“All you had to do was go outside for ten seconds, ” Wagner said. “In particular around noon, you could tell how smoky it was, and it was not a good situation. It was like, ‘Who's having a campfire in my yard this morning?' ”
Wagner added that nature has effected the scheduling of soccer games in the past, but cancelling due to a poorness in air quality is very rare.
“I don't know that this has happened all that often, in terms of cancelling because of air quality, ” he said. “Usually when a soccer game gets cancelled, it's because of lightning and that's about the only thing. Air quality stuff is kind of a rare event. It happens, I guess. ”
Wagner, who also coaches on of Athabasca's U10 boys soccer teams, said he has not made any rescheduling plans for the cancelled games in the area, nor has he heard of any plans being made yet.
“Normally, if a game gets cancelled because of weather or lightning or something like that and it's not safe, then you try to reschedule it. I'm sure we'll probably try and do so, but I haven't heard any details on that. ”
Soccer was not the only sport to call off a game due to the poor air quality.
The Landing Trail Intermediate School flag football program cancelled their afternoon game against the staff from Athabasca University, as well.
“Unfortunately, we had to cancel the game. But young lungs count you know? ” said Terry Smith, head coach and organizer of LTIS flag football.
“This week, we're going to regroup and see if there another day to play the university and kind of go from there, ” he said. “It's the luck of the draw. It's unexpected, but that's the way it is, and health comes first. ”
Interactive
This map shows the carbon monoxide content in the air on May 19 at 9 a.m.
Courtesy of ;Cameron Beccario, at ;earth.nullschool.net. Data sources can be viewed here. ;
