OHIO (WJW) –  Wildfire smoke from Canada has caused smoky sunsets across the country this week, including in Northern Ohio.

Footage from @TerryEckmanW on Twitter in Toledo shows a red-hued sun in a gray sky.

According to Fox 8 Meteorologist Dontae Jones, about 150 wildfires are blazing in the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. As the smoke rises into the air, the fine particulates go into the atmosphere and are at the mercy of the wind.

At Northeast Ohio’s latitude on the earth, wind travels west to east. The wildfire smoke goes high into the atmosphere and gets caught in the jet stream (a stream of fast-moving winds that separate air masses).

As the jet stream meanders around Canada and the U.S., it takes the wildfire smoke particulates with it. 

As it so happens, those of us in Northeast Ohio are in the path of the jet and the eastward-moving air that contains the wildfire smoke.

When the sky is clear during sunset, all seven wavelengths of light are visible, however, wildfire smoke tends to block the shorter wavelengths and only the longer red/orange gets through, thus enhancing the red color of the sun.

Until the wildfires are under control and depending on the path of the winds, we will still be able to see this beautiful phenomenon.