The smoke that’s blanketing the Kenora area isn’t local.

Geoff Coulson from Environment Canada says northwest winds are carrying the smoke, mostly from northern Manitoba.

“We’re watching what the prevailing winds are doing aloft in the atmosphere, usually a number of kilometers above the surface to get a sense of where the smoke would be moving from and affecting the Lake of the Woods area,” states Coulson.

“What we’re noticing both from the prevailing winds right now from the northwest aloft, where the smoke is coming from.  A lot of the smoke is actually been related to fires around the northern Winnipeg Lakes.”

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry confirms there aren’t forest fires in the Kenora area causing the smoke.