said.

"And if you have outdoor events planned this week, limit time outside or reschedule them. Nothing is worth compromising your health for."

What has caused it?

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said much of the smoke was blowing up from the fires in northern New South Wales.

"It is just this little south-easterly breeze that we've had come in this morning it's recirculating all the smoke off the northern NSW fires and sort of pushed it out to sea on the westerlies and this little south easterly this morning has brought it all back in from over the water," meteorologist Jonty Hall said.

"We have widespread smoke in southeast Queensland with east-south-easterly winds dragged it from fires in NSW and southeast Queensland as well," he said.

"The smoke should hang around for mostof the day before a north-easterly wind change later today and the winds should clear the smoke tomorrow."

Brisbanites saw a similar haze blanket the city during the September fires which mostly cleared within 24 hours.

But this time, forecaster Vince Roland said, the thick smoke could linger until the weekend.

"As we head towards the middle and end of the week we see the wind swing back around to the south, so even though we might get a bit of clearing tomorrow there is going to be a lot of smoke hanging around the northern parts of NSW and south-east Queensland," he said.

"So we'll probably see a few more hazy conditions before the weekend."

What you can do

Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman Kowai Timu said people with pre-existing lung conditions like asthma