Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada has triggered air quality alerts in several US states, including Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as eastern Nebraska and parts of Indiana and Illinois. The blazes, which continued to rage across Canada on Saturday, have sent smoke wafting over the Midwest, bringing warnings of unhealthy air for at least the third day.
According to Joe Strus, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, “We’ve sort of been dealing with this, day in and day out, where you walk outside and you can taste the smoke, you can smell it.” The Air Quality Index (AQI) is expected to reach the red or unhealthy category in a large swath of Minnesota and will likely remain so through Saturday.
The poor air quality poses particular risks for people with lung and heart conditions, as well as children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Forecasters warned that smoky skies would remain across the Midwest for much of Saturday but could start to dissipate before spreading as far south as Tennessee and Missouri.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported “out-of-control” blazes in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, as well as in Yukon and the Northwest Territories. A total of 717 fires were active across the country, with Environment Canada reporting “extremely high” levels of air pollution in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories.
The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) monitors fire danger conditions and fire occurrence across Canada, providing daily national-level wildland fire maps and reports. The system uses weather data from over 2,500 weather stations across Canada and the United States, remote sensing satellite data for wildland fire detection and perimeter estimates, and reported fire location data collected from provinces, territories, and national parks.
