Air quality advisory lifted for Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley amid cooler-than-expected temperatures
The air quality advisory that was put in place Friday for eastern Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District has been lifted.
Metro Vancouver, the regional authority that issued the advisory, said in a news release Saturday that air quality has improved "due to cooler weather and clouds moving in over the region."
The authority said it's still monitoring smoke from wildfires burning in B.C.'s Interior and in Washington State, but the risk of ground-level ozone that prompted the advisory has declined.
Smoke from the fires could reach parts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Saturday and Sunday, according to Metro Vancouver.
"Smoke concentrations may vary widely across the region as winds and temperatures change, and as wildfire behaviour changes," the authority said in its release.
Both Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley - along with several other regions of the province - remained under heat warnings Saturday afternoon.
However, the high temperatures forecasted earlier in the week had not quite materialized. According to Environment Canada, the temperature recorded at Vancouver International Airport at 2 p.m. Saturday was just 23 C.
Farther inland, at Abbotsford International Airport, the temperature was just 24 C around 2:30 p.m., well below the temperatures in the low 30s that had been predicted.
Real-time air quality readings for the Lower Mainland can be found on Metro Vancouver's AirMap website.
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