Sisters residents might have thought they were caught in London pea soup fog early Thursday morning, October 16.

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Smoke from a Forest Service controlled burn settled in over the town in a thick, choking blanket for a couple of hours before lifting and dissipating into the blue autumn sky.

It wasn't supposed to happen.

According to Forest Service fuels technician Chuck Cook, weather conditions and forecasts were favorable when the burn was touched off south of town Wednesday morning at about 10 a.m.

"We had a pretty good southeast air flow that was carrying the smoke over the Cascades," Cook said.

The burn only lasted till 4 p.m., but an inversion set in that pressed the residual smoke down on Sisters overnight.

The controlled burn, part of the Canal Burn project south of Sisters, is designed to reduce fuels build-up to protect against" wildfire, and to promote ecosystem health in the fire-dependent ponderosa pine forest.

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The Forest Service tries to burn when conditions are favorable and impact on local communities can be minimized. The weather just doen't always cooperate.

"We're real sensitive to the conditions," Cook said. "We don't like to see smoke in the community any more than people like to have it."