©BCWildfireService

Summer isn’t quite over, but it’s shaping up to be one of the smokiest on record, with air-quality warnings blanketing the Okanagan for much of July and August. Warnings urging people to reduce activities because of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, were issued for 13 days in July and 28 days in August across the Okanagan Valley, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Chloe Katsademas. That’s a sharp increase from recent years. In 2025, there were just two warning days in August. In 2024, there were about nine days with warnings, Katsademas said. …So far in 2026, the Penticton weather station has recorded 302 hours of smoke-obscured visibility between April and October. That makes 2026 the third-worst year on record for smoke hours at the station.