With high winds blowing from the south, dust from a nearby mining operation created a smoke-like haze in Porcupine and South Porcupine today.
Throughout the day the wind has been from about 25 km/h to 43 km/h, with gusts from 41 to 62 km/h, according to Environment Canada.
At Newmont Porcupine, sustainability and external relations manager Bryan Neeley said their site's weather monitoring system started sending high wind alerts around 9:30 a.m. It caused dust from the mining company's operations to blow into town.
"Over the past few years, the site has worked with the University of Alberta to inject a dust suppressant product into the tailings to reduce dusting events. While this has been successful, it has not alleviated today’s dusting event. The site is working at moving spigot lines in order to wet areas of dry tailing in order to reduce dusting," said Neeley.