For those hoping to enjoy some fresh air this weekend, Environment Canada Meteorologist Crawford Luke has some bad news, especially for those living or traveling within smoky northern Saskatchewan.

“It looks like it’s going to be quite bad for several days…Often we see with these episodes of wildfire smoke, you can sometimes get a few hours here and there where the smoke might clear out a little bit and the air quality might improve.”

Luke says that reprieve may come in the form of rain this weekend. He adds that most areas La Ronge and south should expect between 10 and 20 milimetres of rain, with southern Saskatchewan seeing up to 40 mm. The rain is expected to move in Saturday night and continue Sunday.

He adds that the rain may also help mitigate the spread of the wildfires impacting Saskatchewan’s north, if it falls in the right spots. Luke adds that he wouldn’t be surprised if another air quality advisory was issued for Saskatoon early next week, urging the public to stay indoors as much as possible.

“Saskatoon is kind of right on the edge of where we think the smoke is going to be this weekend, but if anyone is going north of east out of Saskatoon, it looks really smoky this weekend…We can really see it on satellite.”