(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who happened to be up for sunrise today (Wednesday) got a rare treat. Smoke from wildfires in Alberta, Canada, is filtering high over Iowa and it’s making the sun appear as a golden-reddish-orange ball. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says the phenomenon should be visible at sunset tonight, too, and for that matter, the sun and sky may look unusual all day, perhaps longer. “It’s really making kind of that reddish look to the sky. It’s gonna look pretty hazy most of the day,” Hagenhoff says. “Right now, it looks like that hazy sky’s going to hang on at least through tomorrow. We do have a cold front coming through on Thursday with some thunderstorms that may help to push some of it out as we get into the end of the week.”

Iowans who have certain health issues and difficulty breathing should -not- feel any ill affects from the smoke, as it’s far up in the atmosphere, perhaps 20-thousand feet up. Plus, she says, it doesn’t even smell like smoke outside. “In the afternoon, sometimes this time of year, whenever it’s warm, you can get some deeper mixing as the ground kind of warms up. That could start to pull some of it down, but again, just how much is kind of an unknown,” Hagenhoff says. “So just something to use caution. Of course, there are air quality products out there so anyone with concerns would want to check to see what those levels may be.”

Image from NASA Earth Observatory

There are at least 90 wildfires now burning in Canada with more than 20 of them out of control. More than 20-thousand Canadians have been evacuated from their homes because of the fires, and cities like Calgary are under alerts due to poor air quality. Hagenhoff doesn’t anticipate anything similar here and the smoke is so high aloft, it doesn’t even appear on radar over Iowa. The odd-looking sky could persist, though. “Because it’s such a small-scale thing with the fires in Canada, and how that’s going to interact with our systems, and how it gets drug down,” she says, “it’s a little tough to kind of figure out exactly where we’ll be with any kind of length into the future past a couple days.”

The federal government runs a website called simply, AirNow, and it’s focused on fires and smoke. The site includes a color-coded map through which you can zoom in on individual Iowa counties to check on air quality.

More at https://fire.airnow.gov/

(Iowa DNR News, 5/17/23) – Despite a rainy cold closing weekend across much of state, Iowa’s wild turkey hunters reported harvesting more than 14,800 birds through the mandatory registration system, an increase of nearly 3,000 versus the 2022 harvest. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report Iowa’s spring turkey seasons began April 7 with the youth season and ended on May 14. Hunters purchased nearly 54,500 spring turkey tags, an increase of 2,000 licenses from 2022.

Turkey production has been good across most of the state the past two years and these two-year-old birds were likely a good portion of the harvest, said Jim Coffey, forest wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “The two-year-old birds are the most likely to gobble and the most likely to move,” he said. “When we combine birds willing to move, pretty good weather during the season and the great passion our turkey hunters have for the resource, we get a harvest for the record books.”

While the hunting season may be done for 2023, Iowans can help the DNR with its annual turkey production estimates by reporting all the turkeys seen during the months of July and August.  This annual survey is designed to predict the overall production of wild turkeys that will be available for the 2024 season. The DNR will have a link to the survey on its website before it begins on July 1, where Iowans seeing wild turkeys are asked to provide the date and county in which the turkey(s) was seen, if it was an adult female or adult male (males have beards on their breast), and whether there are young poults (baby turkeys) present.

Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR.

Annual production surveys conducted by the DNR are an important component of the species management plans, which includes providing hunting opportunities.  Anyone seeing turkeys is encouraged to participate in this online survey.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Conservation Dept. is hosting its first kayak fishing session in a little over three-weeks. The event takes place Saturday, June 3rd from 8 AM to 10 AM, at Prairie Rose State Park. The group will meet on the east side of County Road M47. Women and families are highly encouraged to participate! This session will be limited to 15 people and there is a $5 fee. Pre-registration is required, please sign-up here: https://conta.cc/3ob9RYO

Kayaks and fishing poles will be provided, but feel free to bring your own equipment. If you are signed up for the hook and paddle program through the DNR, you will get extra points for attending this event. This is a free fishing weekend, so fishing licenses are encouraged, but not required.