Wildfires in the north have deposited some smoke down in the southeast, with that filling the sky and producing quite a haze.

That's come with a special air quality statement from Environment Canada, warning about what kinds of effects can come from the smoke.

They forecast extreme PM 2.5 concentrations and associated AQHI values of 10+ or very high risk occurring in some areas.

Environment Canada Meteorologist Terri Lang explains just how all that smoke got here.

"To no surprise, all that smoke is coming from northern Saskatchewan, northern Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and parts of northern British Columbia. The winds switched around to the northwest behind a cool front that moved through overnight. Because all that smoke is to the northwest and the winds went to the northwest, that ushered the smoking across the entire province."

The air quality statement came with advice that people with breathing problems should stay indoors to avoid any of the smoke.

That can also pose a problem for those who would otherwise be considered healthy.

"Even with healthy individuals, you are ingesting the smoke and you shouldn't exert yourself too much because the more exert yourself outside too much," said Lang, "The more of the smoke that you'll inhale so it can have an effect on the healthy individuals as well."

That won't clear out too soon, with the southeast likely to see the effects of the smoke until the weekend.

"It's going to be around at least for the next day or so. The smoke dispersion models would indicate that. We should get a break in it probably overnight tomorrow night into Friday, but because there's still so much smoke coming from those fires," said Lang, "There's likely to be still some around. It may be more you know, sort of at higher levels of the atmosphere so that the sun might sort of appear orange."

"But hopefully at the surface, where we all breathe and live, the amount of smoke getting down to the surface will improve. But I think even over the next number of days, we're probably going to see the smoke come and go just because of the movement of the atmosphere."