Winds Push Smoke from Canadian Wildfires South into US and Worsen Air Quality - MIRATECH
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Winds Push Smoke from Canadian Wildfires South into US and Worsen Air Quality

May 23, 2025

 

Air quality in some parts of the United States is worsening as smoke from dozens of wildfires in Canada travels south, pushed by winds high in the atmosphere, according to an article from The AP on May 30.

Air quality in Arrowhead, Minnesota, is deemed unhealthy for people and animals sensitive to pollution and other airborne particles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow page.

Moderate air quality is being reported across other parts of northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, the Chicago area, southwestern Michigan and the state’s eastern Upper Peninsula, northern Indiana and western Ohio.

Over the next day or so, particulates from the burning trees, leaves and other vegetation could reach further south into Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, said Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, Minnesota.

Murray Kinsey, owner of a houseboat company just outside of Babbitt, Minnesota, said the sky Friday was “hazy,” but anglers still were fishing on nearby Birch Lake.

“It’s getting a little hard to breathe,” Kinsey said. “But it’s not terrible. We’ve had it before, but it’s been way worse.”

The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air we breathe is on a daily basis. The index focuses on the health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air.

AQI is calculated based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution or particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that pose the greatest threat to human health in this country.

The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow.

The level below orange is yellow and considered moderate, where the air quality is acceptable. That is what is showing Friday for some other parts of the Midwest.

But fine particle levels are expected to reach the red air quality index in northern Minnesota, a level that is unsafe for everyone, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality said it is monitoring air quality levels and advised individuals to limit prolonged outdoor activities.

To limit exposure to unhealthy air quality, people should stay indoors with windows and doors closed. Avoid heavy exertion outdoors, using fans or swamp coolers that take air from outside, all wood-burning appliances, and lighting candles and incense.