Smoke from wildfires burning hundreds of miles to the west have made for a hazy weekend across northern New England and into Maine.
"Yeah, we see things like this in the atmosphere from time to time." says National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Kimble.
Smoke from the fires had to travel some 3000 miles, but, says Kimble, particulates can travel farther than that. Sometimes smoke can come from as far away as China, and he says desert sands from Africa have even been known to cross the Atlantic.
"The atmosphere can disperse these things pretty far if the material can get pulled up into the upper atmosphere where the winds are pretty strong." says Kimble.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued an air quality bulletin on Saturday.
About 20 Maine firefighters have been deployed to help fight the fires which are burning tens of thousands of acres from California to northwestern Canada.
Kimble with the weather service says as long as those fires are burning, Maine could get smoky again if the winds shift.
