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.

Thats because neither the 235 out-of-control Canadian wildfires nor the stuck weather pattern thats 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 Administrations 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 center forecast operations chief Greg Carbin. The conditions are not going to be very favorable.

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