(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago area, and much of the Midwest, is experiencing hazy, gray skies this week.
It's because of several wildfires burning in Northern Alberta and parts of Canada.
"What's happening is the jet stream is taking that smoke from the wildfires and kind of diverting it south into kind of the northeastern half of the United States," said Jake Petr, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville. "It's turned into quite a wide area of smoke across northeast Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and then into Illinois as well."
The plumes of smoke are high up in the atmosphere, causing light particles to scatter more.
Petr tells WBBM that means more colorful sunrises and sunsets.
"What people notice, in addition to that haziness, is that when the sun is more on the horizon, it kind of gets that pinkish hue or even reddish depending on how thick that smoke layer is."
Hazy skies will likely stick around through Friday, when a cold front is expected to help clear the air.
"I suspect until the fires kind of wind down, it may be here at times off and on for the foreseeable future," Petr added.
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