Smoke stretches across North Slave, South Slave and Dehcho

Virtually the entirety of the southern Northwest Territories is blanketed in smoke, with air quality advisories stretching across the North Slave, South Slave and Dehcho.

Some communities in those regions were already under smoke advisories that began on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, Environment Canada added Fort Smith, Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte and Sambaa K’e.

Days of hot, dry and often breezy weather have fanned fires across the territory, with the exception of the Beaufort Delta, the only region where the fire danger is not rated high to extreme.

On Friday, the NWT government said 15 new fires had been recorded in the past day.

Temperatures in the North Slave are set to be cooler this coming week, though there is little sign of any prolonged wet spell to help dampen existing fires.

Warm weather in Fort Smith and the Dehcho is expected to extend well into next week.