Expect a hot, smoky summer in much of America. Here's why you'd better get used to it

The only break much of America can hope for anytime soon from eye-watering dangerous smoke from fire-struck Canada is brief bouts of shirt-soaking sweltering heat and humidity from a southern heat wave that has already proven deadly, forecasters say.

The only break much of America can hope for anytime soon from eye-watering dangerous smoke from fire-struck Canada is brief bouts of shirt-soaking sweltering heat and humidity from a southern heat wave that has already proven deadly, forecasters say.

And then the smoke will likely come back to the Midwest and East.

That's because neither the 235 out-of-control Canadian wildfires nor the stuck weather pattern that's responsible for this mess of meteorological maladies are showing signs of relenting for the next week or longer, according to meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Weather Prediction Center.

First, the stuck weather pattern made abnormally hot and dry conditions for Canada to burn at off-the-chart record levels. Then it created a setup where the only relief comes when low-pressure systems roll through, which means areas on one side get smoky air from the north and the other gets sweltering air from the south.

Smoke or heat. "Pick your poison," said prediction centre forecast operations chief Greg Carbin. "The conditions are not going to be very favourable."

"As long as those fires keep burning up there, that's going to be a problem for us," Carbin said. "As long as there's something to burn, there will be smoke we have to deal with."

Take St. Louis. The city had two days of unhealthy air Tuesday and Wednesday, but for Thursday "they'll get an improvement of air quality with the very hot and humid heat," said weather prediction centre meteorologist Bryan Jackson. The forecast is for temperatures that feel like 109 degrees (42.8 degrees Celsius) -- with 101-degree (38.3 degrees Celsius) heat and stifling humidity.