B.C.'s nice weekend sunsets may be due to Russian wildfires

Monday, April 20, 2015, 2:08 PM - There's a bit of a dark side to B.C.'s dazzling sunsets this weekend.

In a nutshell, the more particulate matter there is in the atmosphere, the more red or orange the sky will seem at sunrise and sunset. And the particulate matter in this case is likely smoke from Russian wildfires.

The tradition in parts of Siberia is to burn wild grass to fertilize the soil for the upcoming growing season, but dry weather and strong winds caused farmers to lose control of the situation.

As of last week, the out-of-control blazes in Siberia killed around two dozen people, affected 38 villages and drove more than 5,000 people from their homes. Dozens of people have been injured and more than 1,200 homes have burned.

The fires have been so numerous and widespread, their smoke has actually reached western North America, buoyed by winds that blow air from Asia to our region in around 3-7 days.

As you can see from the graphic above, that air is being funnelled right over to the B.C. Lower Mainland and Washington State, with the latter area particularly affected.

The thinner wisps in the image below are streams of smoke, captured on Saturday by NASA's MODIS satellite:

Our sunsets assume those striking hues because all the extra particulate matter in the air filters out light in wavelengths that appear in other colours, like blue and yellow. Light in wavelengths appearing red and orange have a greater chance to make it through.

As for why the skies don't look like that at midday, that's because the light we see at noon is taking the shortest path through our atmosphere. By sunrise and sunset, the light is at an angle that takes it through more of the atmosphere before it reaches our eyes, giving more time for the filter effect to kick in.

Our B.C. viewers certainly didn't skip out on the chance to shoot those skies:

Anthony D'Amico, Kamloops

Deeana Brett, Sooke

Tanya Kerr, Royston

Chris and Wayne Prinn, Deroche

SOURCE: KOMO | ABC