Latest news with #sensitivegroups
CBS News
7 hours ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Poor air quality in Chicago area from Canadian wildfires, creating unhealthy conditions for all
The hazy skies in the Chicago area are the visible sign of the poor air quality Thursday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifts into our area. Behind the cold front that finally brought temperatures down from the suffocating heat and humidity that have enveloped the Chicago area for the last few weeks, hazy and smoky skies have filtered back in. The Canadian wildfire smoke has traveled down to the surface, creating unhealthy air quality for everyone, and especially for people with health conditions or who are very young or elderly. Visibility is also poor, as low as two miles in some area. The worst of the visibility and air quality reported so far Thursday are in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The wildfire smoke is expected to linger Thursday night and into Friday. At times you may even be able to smell the smoke in the air. All groups, especially sensitive groups, should limit their time outdoors Thursday, and keep windows and doors closed in these conditions. The air quality will improve slightly Friday, from unhealthy for all to just unhealthy for sensitive groups.
CBS News
a day ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Air quality alert issued for all of Michigan Wednesday and Thursday because of Canadian wildfires
Smoke from Canadian wildfires will lead to poor air quality in all of Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. There is an air quality alert for all counties in Michigan until midnight Friday, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy reported. Pollutants across the state are expected to be in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG, Orange AQI) range Wednesday and Thursday with some locations reaching the Unhealthy (Red AQI) range. This is what is contributing to poor air quality for Wednesday and Thursday. Wildfire smoke from Canada moved into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Tuesday and the Lower Peninsula on Wednesday morning. Anyone with respiratory issues or trouble breathing will need to try staying indoors as much as possible until Friday. Monitor any coughing or problems breathing. Try not to burn anything outdoors and keep windows closed overnight. Rain along a front and winds behind it will help to move some, if not all, of the smoke out by the end of the week.
CBS News
a day ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Minnesota endures lengthy air quality alert amid cooler, drier stretch
The entire state of Minnesota is under an air quality alert for the next few days, coinciding with a stretch of cooler, quieter weather. The alert will last through 5 p.m. on Saturday as wildfire smoke from Canada blows into the state. The air in southern Minnesota will be unhealthy for sensitive groups — orange on the air quality index scale — and unhealthy for everyone (red) in the rest of the state. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says this is one of the longest air quality alerts on record, tying with those issued for St. Louis County during the Greenwood fire in 2021. Highs will be in the 70s and lower 80s through early next week, with reduced humidity as well. Our next rain chance comes Sunday into Monday as warmer, more humid air builds back in ahead of a new system.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Climate
- Forbes
Canadian Wildfire Smoke: New York City Faces Air Quality Advisory for Second Day in a Row
New York City and other parts of the Northeast were placed under air quality alerts for the second day in a row as smoke from the wildfires burning in Canada again brings hazardous conditions to the region. New York City was placed under an air quality health advisory over the weekend. AFP via Getty Images New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley will all experience air quality within the 101-150 range on the air quality index Sunday, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation forecasted—meaning the air could contain fine particles and could be 'unhealthy for sensitive groups.' Sensitive groups include very young children and adults with preexisting conditions like asthma and heart disease, the New York State Department of Health said, recommending these individuals limit 'strenuous outdoor physical activity.' The state issued an Air Quality Health Advisory on Saturday afternoon as smoke began blanketing the region, and extended the warning through Sunday evening at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Parts of New Jersey, New England and Quebec could also experience similar air quality conditions, according to online tracker IQAir. 120. That was the air quality reading for New York City as of around 11 a.m. EDT on Sunday morning—the eighth worst among major cities in the world, according to IQAir, and the worst in North America. Key Background The smoke blanketing the Northeast over the weekend is primarily the result of massive wildfires burning in Canada. Over 3,300 have burned over 5.6 million hectares across Canada year-to-date, according to the Canadian Interagency Fire Centre's most recent report. Canada has suffered from severe wildfires since a record-breaking 2023 wildfire season, when fires burning in Quebec blanketed New York City in an orange haze. Earlier this month, a group of Republican members of Congress from Wisconsin and Minnesota wrote to Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., asking the country for more information about how it planned to combat the fires and implying a 'lack of active forest management' played a role in exacerbating the situation. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, the leader of the Canadian province where wildfires forced thousands to evacuate and trapped and killed two people in a rural area in May, criticized the group as 'ambulance chasers' and challenged them to visit and support the American firefighters involved in battling the blazes on the Canadian side of the border. The air quality readings in New York this weekend are just a fraction of what was recorded in 2023, when readings spiked above 400—a level considered hazardous for the entire population.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Climate
- New York Times
Smoke From Canadian Wildfires Wafts Over New York City
Officials warned that smoke-filled air would blanket the New York City area on Sunday, creating unhealthy conditions for some, as soot and ash from Canadian wildfires drifted across the border. The air quality health advisory, issued on Saturday, will expire on Sunday night, the National Weather Service said. On Saturday, parts of the city reached 136 on the Air Quality Index, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company, briefly making it one of the cities in the United States with the worst air quality. Parts of Massachusetts and New Jersey were also under air quality advisories on Saturday. The index in New York City was predicted to reach a maximum of 120 on Sunday, putting it in the classification of 'unhealthy for sensitive groups,' according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The index could reach 135 in the Upper Hudson Valley and 120 on Long Island. Maps: Tracking Air Quality and Smoke From Wildfires in Canada and the U.S. See maps of where smoke is traveling and how harmful the air has become. The Weather Service advised vulnerable groups, which includes young children and those who have respiratory ailments, to take precautions like limiting strenuous outdoor activity. An index reading of below 50 is considered good. A reading of above 150 means the air is considered 'unhealthy,' and the ill effects might be felt more widely by healthy people. For weeks, smoke from wildfires in Canada has been drifting across the border to the United States during its annual fire season, which usually runs from March to October. Wildfires are a common cause of extended periods of unhealthy air, and fine particles of soot, ash and dust can billow high in the air and be blown for hundreds of miles by prevailing winds. The drifting smoke from Canada's fires has become a growing issue in the United States in recent years. In 2023, wildfires burned more land in Canada than ever before, and created smoke so intense that it turned the skies over New York City a frightening shade of orange. Experts have warned that climate change was turning environments like Canada's forests into a tinderbox. This year, smoke from Canada's wildfires has again drifted south across the U.S. border, inflaming diplomatic relations. This month, six Republican lawmakers wrote to Canada's ambassador to the United States, demanding to know the Canadian government's plan for tackling the wildfires and accusing it of lax forest management. The premier of Manitoba Province in Western Canada, where wildfires have been particularly bad, blasted the letter, accusing the U.S. lawmakers of 'trying to trivialize and make hay out of a wildfire season where we've lost lives in our province.'
