Wildfire Smoke Prompts Air Quality Advisories Across Midwest and Northeast

Heavy smoke from wildfires burning in Canada and Minnesota reached large areas of the Midwest and Northeast this week. Air quality alerts were already active across several states. Minnesota officials issued an air quality alert from Tuesday through Friday for the Twin Cities metro area, Alexandria and Two Harbors.

Air quality levels in Two Harbors, the Tribal Nation of Grand Portage and other parts of northeast Minnesota were expected to reach hazardous levels. Tim Walz and other state leaders moved Wednesday to extend a peacetime emergency for an extra 30 days. Much of Minnesota remains under an air quality alert through Friday.

The entire state of Michigan was placed under an air quality alert on Wednesday due to particulate pollution from the Canadian wildfire smoke, the state's environmental agency said. Officials in Wisconsin also warned residents about air quality issues that could last for days. Multiple counties in western and central New York were under an air quality advisory Wednesday until midnight.

New York City, ranked among the most polluted cities in the world on Wednesday, remained under an air quality alert until Thursday. A large plume of smoke reached the Boston area Wednesday, turning skies from milky white to brown and yellow. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued air quality alerts for the entire state.

In parts of Maine, residents reported yellowish and brownish skies. The National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, stated on social media Tuesday that there was plenty of smoke upstream, so expect periods of hazy skies over the next day before the cold front pushes through.

By Wednesday afternoon, intense smoke was expected to spread across more of the East Coast and Midwest, including parts of the New England coast, northern Pennsylvania, Detroit and Milwaukee, said Tyler Hasenstein, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

By midday Thursday, Dan Westervelt, associate professor at Columbia University's Climate School, said severe drought conditions combined with heat in Canada and the U.S. have created a perfect storm for really dry conditions to provide a lot of fuel for these wildfires to burn.