Federal, state and local officials said Friday that smoke hanging over the metro area probably came from a controlled burn in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northeastern Minnesota.

Reports of smoke came from Minnetonka in the west metro to White Bear Lake on the east side of the Twin Cities.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety fielded several calls from officials and citizens in Minneapolis, White Bear Lake and the Lake Phalen area of St. Paul, inquiring about the smoke.

Ralph Pribble, spokesman for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said "it appears likely that the smoke is coming from the fires in northern Minnesota."

Fire crews have been burning hundreds of acres in the BWCA in recent days to prevent a small forest fire east of Ely from creeping toward populated areas.

James McQuirter, a Weather Service forecaster in the Twin Cities, said that a "very stagnant weather pattern" has combined with winds "coming out of the northeast, [and] this is what's coming around."

PAUL WALSH