Western wildfire smoke passes over Seacoast

If you've been seeing haze and faintly smelling smoke in the area over the past few days, it wasn't a local fire. Meteorologists say that wildfire smoke from fires burning in the Western United States and Manitoba Canada are to blame for the hazy weather New Hampshire and Maine are experiencing.

Meteorologist Hunter Tubbs at the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, said that while the sky might look overcast with clouds, it's actually not.

"There's not many clouds on the satellite right now, but if you look up you can't really see any blue," Tubbs said. "That's because the smoke is blocking it, so it appears cloudier than it actually is."

The smoke is being picked up by the Jet Stream and brought over to the Northeast region. Two of the biggest impacts from the smoke as it sweeps over the area are reduced visibility and poor air quality. While the NWS says that seeing smoke move through the area in the upper atmosphere isn't uncommon, seeing it reported at surface level is. 

"The way that the Jetstream is and where we're oriented, we're kind of the exhaust pipe for the smoke up north as it exits the U.S.," Tubbs said. "I think this is the first time I've ever seen our observing sites reporting shallow smoke and such reduced visibility before, so that's very unusual."

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services issued air quality alerts  for nearly all of New Hampshire, since fine particulate concentrations in the air may reach levels that are considered unhealthy, especially for sensitive people. The air quality alert expires at 10 a.m. on Wednesday for New Hampshire.

"Sensitive groups may have some difficulties with the amount of extra particulate matter in the air," Tubbs said. "Overall there are minimal impacts, but those in the sensitive groups like the elderly and people who have pre-existing conditions should be careful and limit time outdoors."

The NWS says the smoke isn't here to stay. A rain system was predicted to move through the area starting Tuesday afternoon and while it likely washed out much of this smoke from the air, it may return by the middle of the week, Tubbs said.

On Monday afternoon, Nashua Airport reported shallow smoke with two miles visibility, which Tubbs says is not very common.

"A lot of other airports are also reporting reduced visibility as the smoke makes its way closer to the surface," Tubbs said. 

Rochester and nearby Seacoast towns say they did not experience any concerned 911 calls about the smoke, but there were reports surrounding Manchester of 911 calls about smoke in the area.

Update on the drought 

Much of Southern New Hampshire is back to normal conditions and has been removed from categorized drought conditions.

While June was one of the driest months in at least 20 years for the area, July has been one of the rainiest. While the National Weather Service doesn't keep information for Seacoast cities like Dover or Portsmouth in particular, Tubbs said that above-normal rainfall in Concord this month totaled 11.03 inches. 

More on the drought:Dover drought update: Mandatory outdoor water restrictions remain in effect

"We're currently having the wettest July on record, breaking the previous 2009 record of  7.55 inches of rain," Tubbs said. "That 11.03 inches is eight inches above the average for the month of July."

Dover is still implementing some precautionary outdoor water usage restrictions.

More on the 'water emergency':Dover declares 'water emergency' with mandatory usage restrictions

Community Services Director John Storer, who was tasked with overseeing the Dover's drinking water system, said he is encouraged by the wet weather this month, but it hasn’t yet made up for a deficit over the last 18-plus months. He previously told Foster's that the water restrictions were reducing the city's 2.7 million gallons of water usage by roughly 700,000 to 800,000 gallons per day, but the city is concerned with maintaining a steady replenishment of water in the aquifers.