Canadian wildfire smoke covers Eastern US, causing red sunsets
Smoke from wildfires in Canada covered most of the eastern and central United States on Monday morning and will linger through Tuesday, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
Fortunately for people worried about the air quality impacting their health, most of the smoke has remained high in the atmosphere over the United States and only caused red sunrises and sunsets over the weekend.
However, for areas closer to the fires in northern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, air quality remains poor to unhealthy on Monday morning.
"Shower and thunderstorms in the Upper Midwest this afternoon and evening will help cleanse the air and help improve air quality," AccuWeather Meteorologist Alexander Duffus said.
Rainfall can bring the smell of wildfire smoke down to the ground, so people who are outside during the showers and storms could catch a whiff of smoke.
Residents concerned about the smoke's health effects can check their local air quality on AccuWeather.com.
The largest wildfire burning in Canada is the Shoe Fire in central Saskatchewan, which remains out of control and one of the many sources of smoke over the lower 48 states, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.
As of Monday morning, the Shoe Fire has burned 1490 square miles, which is equivalent to the size of Rhode Island.
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