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Time of India
04-08-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Canada wildfire: Thick smoke chokes Midwest, Northeast US; air alerts widen
Thick smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires drifted across the border, causing hazy conditions over parts of the Midwest and northeastern United States on Sunday. According to government records, Canada is experiencing its second-worst wildfire season, with nearly 4,000 fires documented this year, NPR reported. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The cross-border smoke has impacted air quality across several US states. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota experienced concerning air quality levels this weekend. Air quality alerts were issued for parts of Illinois and Indiana. Authorities in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine advised residents to reduce outdoor activities due to smoke pollution. Bob Oravec, National Weather Service Lead Forecaster, told NPR that current wind patterns are facilitating the movement of polluted air from Canada into the US. "Air is moving at all levels and a lot of times it'll move in the same direction through the whole depth of the atmosphere, so the smoke is rising into the winds and the winds just transport it downstream, like anything — like a leaf getting blown," Oravec explained. Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency extended its statewide air quality alert until noon on Monday, August 4th. According to Minnesota Public Radio, the state is experiencing its longest air quality alert since the agency began issuing alerts in 2008, expected to last seven days. Some areas of Minnesota saw improved conditions on Sunday. Earlier in the weekend, the agency predicted the air quality index (AQI) would reach the severe "red" level statewide, considered unhealthy for all residents. The Pollution Control Agency stated that even healthy individuals might experience symptoms including eye irritation, coughing, or breathing difficulties. They warned of more severe impacts for others. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "Sensitive or more exposed individuals may experience more serious health effects, including worsening of existing heart or lung disease and respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, possibly leading to an asthma attack, heart attack, or stroke," according to the Pollution Control Agency statement. Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources extended air quality alerts until noon on Monday, August 4th, primarily in southeastern counties. Michigan officials also extended alerts across all counties through Monday. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported over 700 active fires across Canada on Sunday, predominantly in southern Manitoba, north of Minnesota. Over 500 fires remain uncontrolled, forcing thousands of Canadians to evacuate. Canada has faced wildfires throughout the year. Two individuals perished in a southeastern Manitoba wildfire in May. Similar smoke conditions affected the US in June. Oravec suggests poor air quality could persist in US regions. "It looks like that pattern maintains itself going forward through this week, so it doesn't really appear to be any big break. There may be a day or so where there's a temporary break to it, but overall it looks like there is potential for additional smoke to be transported southeastward into the United States," he said. On Sunday afternoon, IQAir ranked Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis among the US cities with the most polluted air.
CTV News
04-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Canadian wildfire smoke causes ‘very unhealthy' conditions in American Midwest and reaches Europe
A sign warns of an air quality alert as smoke from wildfires burning in Canada reaches Minneapolis, Minn., on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave) MINNEAPOLIS — Smoke from Canadian wildfires carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the Midwest, where conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated 'very unhealthy' Tuesday. The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, and the smoke has even reached Europe. The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday. 'As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area,' the agency said. 'The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon.' The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state's southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors. Smoky conditions that have reached the U.S. periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia. Conditions at ground level are unhealthy The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for 'unhealthy' conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for 'very unhealthy' across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning. The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires. 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. While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptoms Hennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air. Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include 'increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that's usually COPD and asthma.' What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients' airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions. Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel 'quite isolating.' People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don't provide enough filtration. The Canadian fire situation Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba. Winnipeg hotels opened Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighbouring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier. In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada's provinces and the country's prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces. Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg. Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. The smoke reaches Europe Canada's wildfires are so large and intense that the smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn't expected to affect surface-air quality, according the European climate service Copernicus. The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus. 'That's really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke,' high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service. The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus. ___ Associated Press writers Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report. Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press
The Independent
04-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Europe could see skies turn red as Canada wildfire smoke reaches continent
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has begun to reach as far as Europe as the large and intense flames continue to threaten health in North America. The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, with smoke now creating unhealthy conditions at ground level for Americans in parts of Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. It is not expected to bring similar health concerns in Europe, with surface-air quality not affected, but those on the continent have been told to expect hazy skies and reddish-orange sunsets. The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus. 'That's really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke,' high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service. The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus. Smoke hits north-east US The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday. 'As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area,' the agency said. 'The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon.' The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state's southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors. Smoky conditions that have reached the US periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia. Conditions at ground level are unhealthy The US Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for 'unhealthy' conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for 'very unhealthy" across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning. The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires 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. While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptoms Hennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air. Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include 'increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that's usually COPD and asthma.' What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients' airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions. Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel 'quite isolating." People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don't provide enough filtration. The Canadian fire situation Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba. The Canadian Press reported that Winnipeg hotels were opening up Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier. In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada's provinces and the country's prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces, The Canadian Press reported. Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg. Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.
Associated Press
03-06-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Canadian wildfire smoke causes 'very unhealthy' conditions in American Midwest and reaches Europe
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the Midwest, where conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated 'very unhealthy' on Tuesday. The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, and the smoke has even reached Europe. The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday. 'As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area,' the agency said. 'The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon.' The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state's southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors. Smoky conditions that have reached the U.S. periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia. Conditions at ground level are unhealthy The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for 'unhealthy' conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for 'very unhealthy' across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning. The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires 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. While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptoms Hennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air. Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include 'increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that's usually COPD and asthma.' What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients' airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions. Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel 'quite isolating.' People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don't provide enough filtration. The Canadian fire situation Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba. The Canadian Press reported that Winnipeg hotels were opening up Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier. In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada's provinces and the country's prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces, The Canadian Press reported. Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg. Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. The smoke reaches Europe Canada's wildfires are so large and intense that the smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn't expected to affect surface-air quality, according the European climate service Copernicus. The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus. 'That's really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke,' high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service. The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus. ___ Associated Press writers Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Chicago Tribune
02-06-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Wildfires are raging in the Canadian prairies. Here's what to know.
TORONTO — Thousands of people have evacuated their homes across parts of the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where officials have declared a state of emergency and crews are working to contain dozens of out-of-control wildfires. The smoke has spread to the Upper Midwest of the United States and is expected to last through the first few days of June as multiple rounds of smoke are set to blow south, Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency warned. The fires are intensifying, and two people were killed after a small town in Manitoba was engulfed in flames. Their deaths represented an ominous start to Canada's wildfire season, which usually runs from March until October. Here's what to know. Where are the wildfires burning? About 1.7 million acres have burned across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Manitoba's out-of-control wildfires are largely burning on its northwest border with Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, the fire activity is also mostly concentrated in the north. About 17,000 people were ordered to leave and more communities can expect the same in the coming days, said Wab Kinew, the premier of Manitoba. Evacuations across those sparsely populated rural regions in Manitoba, home to several First Nations reserves, were assisted by the Canadian armed forces in cases where conditions were more dangerous. But people in Manitoba's Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, an Indigenous community of about 3,000 people, are raising the alarm as the evacuation drags on. The army is facing delays caused by smoky conditions, and about 2,000 people have not yet been able to leave. Thousands more residents fled 17 communities in Saskatchewan. The province has seen almost double the amount of wildfires so far this year, at 211, compared with its five-year average. Elsewhere in Canada, fire activity has struck the northeast region of British Columbia, parts of Alberta and northwest Ontario. Where is the smoke affecting air quality? In the Upper Midwest of the United States, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota have issued air quality warnings as smoke from the prairie wildfires is dragged south by a cold front. Air quality has deteriorated as higher amounts of particulate, like soot, ash and dust, are trapped in the air and blown across thousands of miles. Officials warned residents to modify their outdoor activity, especially for higher risk groups, like children, older adults, pregnant people and those with heart or lung conditions. In 2023, fires from Quebec caused the skies across large parts of New York to turn an apocalyptic orange. So far, the prairie fires have blanketed some of the Midwest in a gray haze. What caused the fires? So far, 98 of Manitoba's 106 wildfires have been caused by people, government data shows. Four occurred naturally, probably as a result of lightning, and another four are under investigation. Lightning, which is more common when temperatures are higher, is usually the cause of wildfires that burn the most land. In 2023, scientists at Canada's natural resources department found that lightning sparked fires that burned 93% of the total wildfire area, and the remaining seven percent of the area burned from human causes. This year, so far, a majority of the wildfires burning in both provinces have been caused by humans, according to officials and government data, but their effect on the total area burned has not yet been determined. It's unclear how many of those were accidental. How is Canada responding? Mark Carney, Canada's prime minister, has convened an emergency response group to address the wildfires. The government has also promised to match donations to the Canadian Red Cross, lend military aid and provide other support. By this time last year, the Canadian government had hosted a wildfire briefing with senior public safety officials to lay out how it was mobilizing for the season, including funding plans to support international crews, train Indigenous firefighters and buy equipment. Will the wildfires get worse? Strong winds and a lack of rain in the forecast mean conditions are likely to get worse over the coming days, meteorologists warn. Nighttime typically provides a reprieve, as temperatures fall, but the overnight weather has remained hot and unrelenting. Climate change, researchers have found, is exacerbating those conditions. Both provinces have seen intense, above-average heat this spring. That, combined with a stationary high-pressure system in central Canada, which causes air to sink downward and dry out, has primed conditions, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit research group. Experts say June is critical for wildfire forecasting because that is when western Canada tends to receive most of its summer rainfall, which could partially determine the course of the rest of wildfire season. Eight firefighters were killed in 2023, Canada's worst wildfire season on record, but there were no civilian deaths. That year, 7,100 wildfires burned 37 million acres, an area larger than the size of England, according to the Canadian government. Scientists later called the wildfires the top carbon emitter of 2023. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
