Alberta foothills in smoke haze

Another smoky day here in Calgary (21 July 2017), with a temperature of 20C this morning and cloudy. The air quality yesterday was expected to reach High Risk, but it seemed to be bearable late in the afternoon. So, I took a drive along some of my favourite roads SW of the city, seeing a few of the 'usual' things. I often can't stop at this location, as there is only enough room for two vehicles, and there is usually one car there, at least. I was happy to find that the spot was empty yesterday - then, half a minute later, three guys on noisy motor bikes pulled up next to me!

I really hope that B.C. (British Columbia, the province to our west) gets a heavy amount of rain very, very soon. The other day, about 145 wildfires were being reported in B.C., causing a lot of devastation and evacuations. Now we have a forest fire here in Alberta, near Banff. Each summer, we get a lot of wildfires, the worst being the one in Fort McMurray that started on 1 May 2016. The fire spread across approximately 590,000 hectares (1,500,000 acres) before it was declared to be under control on July 5, 2016. It was the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history. My heart goes out to all those affected, especially by the ongoing B.C. fires.