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Air quality warnings lifted for Maritimes

July 2, 2013, Wabush, N.L. – Environment Canada has lifted air quality warnings issued for parts of Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick as smoke drifted into the Maritimes overnight from forest fires burning in Labrador.

Meteorologist Linda Libby says shifting winds and rain prompted the department to end the air quality statements just before noon.

The statements had warned that smoke could descend close to the ground, reducing air quality.

Libby says some reporting stations recorded smoke in the area overnight, but the changing circulation pattern of a weather system has moved the smoke away from the Maritimes.

As well, rain over the region is pulling particulate matter out of the air.

A large forest fire has been burning for more than a week near the town of Wabush in western Labrador, where a state of emergency remains in effect.