Calgary air quality: When is the smoke going to clear?

The air quality in Calgaryis at sixor moderaterisk on Friday evening.

Mandeep Dhaliwal, the air-quality program manager with the Calgary Region Airshed Zone, says the city mightseesome relief starting Saturdayif rain helps crews battling the wildfires in Washington state and British Columbia.

"For the weekend we are still forecasting eight," he said. "We are hoping for some heavy rainfall in the Washington area tomorrow morning, and if that happens we might see some relief in later on in the day here inCalgary."

He said the spider problem with the monitoring station that was prompting false readingswas fixedThursday morning, and they will be monitoring the air quality all weekend.

• Spider in air quality monitor causes false 'very high risk' rating for Calgary

Environment Canada also says winds expected to come over the Rockiesthis weekendcould push some of the smoke out of southern Alberta, but it might not be seen in Calgary.

"It won't probably be untillater onSunday into Monday, when we have a cold front coming through that we can probably start to see a real improvement forCalgary," said meteorologistErik de Groot. "I'm hoping by Monday morning we will see some drops in temperatures, but hopefully someclearing of the skies. It might take us a day or so to clear out all the junk that is in the province circulating around."

But he says as long as the fires are still burning, the smoke could return.

People with respiratory problems,children and the elderly are cautioned to reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activities.

Stephen Plamondon was wearing a mask outside today.

"I step outside this morning and that's all I could taste and smell wassmoke, and I have mild asthma and it's not very good for my lungs," he said.

Plamondonis not the only one who has asthma who is fed up with the situation.

Environment Canada warns even healthy people can experience symptoms such as coughing and throat irritation because of the smoke hanging over Calgary.

• Tips for getting some relieffrom the smoke

It seems many Calgarians are fed up with the haze, but trying to cope the best they can.