04/08/2026
The wildfire smoke is hitting the Okanagan hard again this year. As the founder of Tee Leashes, and someone with a background in Mechanical Engineering Technology, I'd like to pass along an inexpensive DIY to my fellow golf enthusiasts.
A simple solution: This DIY Corsi filter uses a standard 20” box fan to pull dirty indoor air through the 4” thick furnace filters attached to it. The filters trap things like wildfire smoke, viruses, and dust, while the fan pushes clean air back into the room.
Wildfire smoke carries a microscopic pollutant called PM2.5 that is roughly 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair. These particles are small enough to bypass your nose's natural protective defenses and lodge deep in your lungs.
Most weather apps hide this number behind a generic “Air Quality Index,” but PM2.5 is the number that matters during wildfires. As I write this, Kelowna's current reading is 75.6 µg/m³, which is generally considered unhealthy.
For reference, PM2.5 Health Levels:
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