Clouds of the Day - Canadian Wildfire Smoke - Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Smoke returned to Iowa skies over the weekend as smoke from Canadian Wildfires lowered visibility to 2.5 miles (from our usual 10 miles). The three photos below were taken between 8:00 and 8:15 CDT this evening. The reddish tint to the sunlight is due to the smoke screening out all but the longer wavelength red light. The overall sky was very muted in color and also had a reddish hue.

This morning we could smell the smoke. We could also see haze that was associated with the smoke throughout the afternoon and evening. The diffuse clouds in a line from just above the Sun to the upper right of the photo turned out to be Cirrus floccus (like flocks of wool) that were precipitating ice crystals. Those clouds moved overhead here at 8:45 p.m. and had nearly disappeared as the crystals had turned to vapor in the dry air aloft.