Notice a haze in Kansas City Tuesday morning? It was smoke from Oklahoma, NWS says

Smoke from several wildfires in Oklahoma made its way to Kansas City, causing haze and a “smoky” smell Tuesday morning, the National Weather City said.

The Kansas City branch tweeted just before 6 a.m. that the smoke rode “strong southerly winds” up from eastern Oklahoma.

Several people in northern Missouri took to social media to say they noticed the smell of smoke.

Air quality in the Kansas City area reached levels categorized as unhealthy for sensitive groups around 2 a.m. before spiking to unhealthy levels at 5 a.m., where it stayed for about two hours, according to data from AirNow.

Air quality was considered moderate as of 2 p.m.

At least 30 fires burned in Oklahoma over the weekend, CNN reported, with the largest — called the 412 Fire — burning 29,000 acres.

The Beaver County blaze, located in the panhandle, destroyed seven homes and multiple large buildings, KSNW reported. Residents in Beaver and Forgan were evacuated Saturday.

Fire crews from three states worked to extinguish the fire over the weekend, with the help of some light rain, according to the outlet.

The NWS in Amarillo said Sunday the fire left a “burn scar” more than 15 miles long.

Several fires were still burning Tuesday, though many were at least 50% contained, according to a fire situation report from the Oklahoma Forestry Services.

Michael Guy, a meteorologist for CNN, said in Oklahoma, “March has the largest amount of acreage burned as well as comparable wildfires per month.”

Oklahoma Forestry Services said fire risk in western Oklahoma is expected to increase over the next couple days and diminish gradually in the eastern part of the state.

A Red Flag warning is effect for counties in Oklahoma’s panhandle and is expected to stretch into western Oklahoma on Wednesday.