The wildfires in California and other western states have been raging for weeks with little to no sign of slowing down. Millions of acres of forest have been burned, and more continues to burn as firefighters on the ground work around the clock to try and put them out. All that fire is creating tons of smoke that's currently choking most of the west coast, and according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, is making its way into the Tri-State.

The regional office, which covers our part of the country, and is responsible for declaring watches and warnings for our area when severe weather hits, tweeted Monday morning the smoke was making its way into the area and would cause a "haziness in the sky" today and Tuesday, especially for those of us in southern Indiana and Illniois who live north of I-64. Nearly two hours after posting the tweet, they followed up with a visual to illustrate their point.

So, how does it get here. The answer is pretty simple actually. Wind and jet stream. As the smoke rises into the atmosphere, the particles get pushed eastward the same way a storm makes it's way from east to west. The National Weather Service in Cleveland explained it in a little more detail earlier this week through their Twitter account.

Fortunately for us here in the Tri-State, the smoke won't be anything like what residents along the west coast are dealing with. But, the fact that it's able to get to us in the first place shows just how severe the situation is out west and how connected we all are even when we're thousands of miles apart.

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