With an Air Quality Warning in effect by Environment Canada for the Weyburn area, those with health conditions like asthma may be staying indoors. However, the smoke isn't great for anyone, which is why the City of Weyburn utilizes its Purple Air Quality sensors.
"We have a link for them on our homepage with the website, and from there you can read the air Quality Health Index numbers. Now, these are not the scientific monitors, like an Environment Canada monitor is, but they are an indication of the Air Quality Health Index," said Richard Henning, Director of Leisure Services with the City of Weyburn.
"You can also go to the map and you can view the overall purple air sensors across the whole province or all of North America," he noted.
"We have a policy in place where if the air Quality Health index is at 10-plus for 30 minutes, then we will make that call to shut down the outdoor pool. We also notify through Xplor Rec, our sports user groups that we recommend that they shut down their operations as well, and then we use that, along with the smoke maps. Once the air quality drops below 10 for 30 minutes and the smoke maps don't indicate any further plumes coming through the area, then we will reopen the facilities."
Note: the facilities are not currently closed at the time of publication.
Henning said he has reached out to other municipalities to see how they utilize the data from their sensors.
"No other municipalities that I reached out to are using it to actually give them direction on when they are going to shut down facilities. They're all discussing it, and it is a major concern after last year's fires and this year's fires even more so."
He said other sports user groups like Saskatoon Soccer, Weyburn Soccer, and Regina Baseball all use the Air Quality Health Index to indicate whenever those user groups should be shutting down.
"The majority of them have the index at 10 for a shutdown, and some user groups have it set at 8."
Henning pointed out that most healthy individuals may not notice the difference in air quality and might question the closures.
"But there are a lot of people out there and a lot of kids who suffer from asthma or other underlying issues, and this can be quite bothersome for them."
Notifying user groups is done via Xplor Rec, on the City's social media pages, and if the air quality is deemed poor enough, the City will also put it out on the City's Voyent Alert system.
"So there are several different ways for all the citizens of Weyburn to sign up and get notified in several different methods."