Air quality and visibility may “temporarily improve Friday for some areas” but may extend into the weekend, Environment Canada said in its alert update for the Region of Waterloo on Thursday, July 16 at 4:54 p.m.

Air Quality Ontario’s Kitchener monitoring station indicates the local air quality health index is “10+”, indicating “very high risk” to health from outdoor air. The reading has remained unchanged since 3 a.m. The index is forecasted to fall to 8 on Friday, indicating “high risk”.

Environment Canada previously announced an orange warning for alert quality on Thursday morning, indicating “impacts [that] are major, widespread and/or may last a few days.” The department also forecasts “widespread smoke” will continue into Friday evening.

More information can be found in Environment Canada’s notice here and on Kitchener’s Air Quality Health Index page here.