Thick wildfire smoke from major blazes burning in Canada and Minnesota is forecast to spread across wide areas of the Midwest and Northeast this week, bringing unhealthy air to millions of Americans.
WASHINGTON — Smoke pouring south from several large wildfires in Canada and Minnesota is expected to blanket parts of the Midwest and northeastern United States in the coming days, raising concerns about hazardous air pollution across multiple states.
Minnesota authorities placed several regions under an air quality alert from Tuesday through Friday, including the Twin Cities metro area, Alexandria and Two Harbors. The heaviest smoke is expected in the state’s northeastern corner as large fires continue to expand. Officials warned that air quality in Two Harbors, the Tribal Nation of Grand Portage and other parts of northeast Minnesota could deteriorate to hazardous levels, a category considered unsafe for everyone.
Dan Westervelt, an associate professor at Columbia University’s Climate School, said a combination of severe drought and heat across Canada and the U.S. has created “a perfect storm for really dry conditions to provide a lot of fuel for these wildfires to burn.” Scientists have found that rising temperatures driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas are contributing to more frequent and more intense wildfires.
Tyler Hasenstein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, Minnesota, urged residents to remain indoors as much as possible, particularly with extreme heat already affecting the region and smoke moving in.
“Those two things coinciding with each other is not good from a health perspective,” Hasenstein said.
Officials in Michigan and Wisconsin also cautioned residents Tuesday that poor air quality could linger for several days. Elevated concentrations of fine particle pollution from wildfire smoke can be especially harmful to children, older adults and people with heart or lung disease.
Farther east, some residents in Maine reported skies tinted yellow and brown as smoke drifted overhead. “There is plenty of smoke upstream, so expect periods of hazy skies over the next day before the cold front pushes through,” the National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine, said Tuesday on social media.
By Wednesday afternoon, intense smoke will spread into the East Coast and Midwest, including parts of the New England coast, northern Pennsylvania, Detroit and Milwaukee, Hasenstein said.
Multiple counties in western and central New York were under an air quality advisory Wednesday until midnight. The most intense smoke could spread as far south as Washington, D.C., by midday Thursday, Hasenstein said.
Fine particle pollution from wildfire smoke can cause shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness or fatigue and aggravate heart and lung diseases and other chronic health issues. Experts suggest reducing or eliminating outdoor activities, wearing a N95 mask if you have to be outside and keeping your indoor air cleaner by closing windows and running an air purifier or air conditioner. Long term, exposure to fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke is one of the leading causes of premature death.
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