BlueSky Canada (BSC) was established in 2007 to conduct research into producing wildfire smoke forecasts for Canada. The founders included representatives from various ministries from the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, Natural Resources Canada, and the University of British Columbia. BSC began publishing operational daily smoke forecasts for western Canada in 2010.

In 2014 the forecasts migrated from the BC Ministry of Environment website to the dedicated firesmoke.ca domain. Over the years the smoke forecasts have evolved to encompass all of Canada and most of North America with high resolution meteorology, and the frequency of the forecasts has increased to four times per day. Fire weather forecasts were added in 2020.

The BSC forecasts and data are intended to be information tools for professionals and the public to use for health and safety and emergency response decision making. As a research project that produces operational forecasts, BSC is dedicated to providing reliable and accurate forecasts while advancing the science of wildfire behaviour, smoke and fire modelling, and the sharing of knowledge and data with provincial and federal agencies in Canada responsible for wildfire and emergency response.

Smoke forecast questions

David Lyder
Alberta Environment and Parks
Edmonton, Alberta
Phone: 780-644-8693
Email: david.lyder@gov.ab.ca

Media & general inquiries

Jalena Bennett
Smoke Information Specialist
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Email: bluesky@eoas.ubc.ca

BlueSky Canada project

Prof. Roland Stull
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Phone: 604-822-5901
Email: bluesky@eoas.ubc.ca

BlueSky Playground

Jalena Bennett
Smoke Information Specialist
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Email: bluesky@eoas.ubc.ca

Operations & technical support

Roland Schigas
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Email: bluesky@eoas.ubc.ca