For the past week, residents may have noticed extra haze in the sky.

Weatherology Meteorologist Paul Trambley says that is due to the wildfires from the western United States. However, while Iowa usually sees the haziness from the Canadian wildfires, due to the historic amounts of wildfires currently happening, he says the smoke has carried across the country.

“The jet stream has been kind of in an orientation which has been transporting this smoke – which can get 10,000-25,000 feet up into the atmosphere – with that smoke plume over the western U.S. Obviously the prevailing winds aloft will continue to push that smoke plume eastward, just because of how much fire activity there is this year. It’s quite a thick smoke plume, so it doesn’t disperse as much as you would probably expect in a normal fire season.”

Trambley says he has never seen this much wildfire activity contribute to such a long and sustaining smoke plume. However, he anticipates the smoke to dissipate by the end of the week.