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Environment Canada has an air quality warning in effect as the smoke from wildfires hangs heavy in the air on Friday, with the potential for some more severe weather moving through.
"There's a warm front that is more or less stalled out right now along the international border," says Kean Kokolsky, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (EC). "With that, the smoke has been transported out of the north back towards us."
Friday morning, already the smoky air lies thick in southern Manitoba, causing issues with visibility on top of polluting the air.
"It's going to be lingering around for the next little while, unfortunately. We might get some reprieve with the southerly winds coming in over the next day or so. Probably by Sunday morning, the smoke will be transported back over us again. So it's wash, rinse, and repeat until the fires get put out."
On top of the air quality being affected in Winnipeg and southern Manitoba from the wildfires, the area is also expecting thunderstorms, some severe, throughout Friday.
"Right now, we have a remnant from a line of thunderstorms that have been tracking along the international border. The most severe storms are in North Dakota right now. But that's going to give way to severe weather threats this afternoon once again."
Kokolsky shares that the southeast corner of Manitoba will most likely see the worst of it in the late afternoon and evening. This includes Pinawa, Steinbach, and the Whiteshell region.
"The southeast sector of the province is where we're going to see the highest potential for all modes of severe weather. That's including heavy rain, large hail, damaging winds and potentially a tornado threat as well. There are some limiting factors that we'll be monitoring throughout the day to see if that threat does materialize."
EC encourages people to limit their time outdoors with the air quality warning, and to take note of the weather in the afternoon for watches and warnings.