Smoke from wildfires raging in Canada engulfed more U.S. cities on Thursday − from the Midwest to the Northeast to the mid-Atlantic to the Southeast − leading to perilous air quality for millions.
Conditions have shifted slightly south since Wednesday, and more parts of the country are being affected, National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson told USA TODAY.
“Some places are having a repeat of yesterday, some are worse than yesterday,” Jackson said, adding that the smoke moved into cities like Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. starting Wednesday afternoon.
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As of Thursday morning, Washington, Chicago and Detroit were among the cities with the worst air quality in the world, according to IQ Air’s Air Quality Index.
Cities in over a dozen states have issued air quality alerts
Cities in over a dozen states from Duluth, Minnesota, to Portland, Maine, and as far south as Atlanta issued Code Orange air quality alerts or worse Thursday, according to the weather service.
Jackson said Madison, Wisconsin, as well as Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, are experiencing dangerous levels of air pollution Thursday, and numbers on the Air Quality Index scale are hovering around 200, or “very unhealthy.”
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Entire states, including New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Vermont were blanketed by the warnings Thursday, according to the weather service.
In West Virginia, a “special weather statement” has been issued for most of the state warning motorists of low visibility on roads and “hazy conditions” caused by a combination of the Canadian wildfire smoke and river valley fog.
When will conditions improve?
Some part of the Midwest could see improvements in the air quality on Friday, Jackson said. A southerly wind that’s spreading west across the upper Midwest could clear some smoke, he said.
“That is supposed to push the smoke farther north and allow it to disperse more,” he said.
But in the eastern U.S., a swath of states stretching from Georgia to New York will likely have more hazy conditions Friday, he said.
In Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and northern Missouri, rain forecast for Friday could also help lessen poor air quality, Jackson said.
Overall, “that will improve the western side” of the smoky conditions that have descended on the eastern half of the U.S., Jackson said.
Where are the Canadian wildfires?
Air quality is unhealthy because of the level of particulates in the air from Canadian wildfires, which have drifted into the U.S. at various points in the past several weeks.
There were 483 active wildfires throughout Canada as of Tuesday, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Of those, 253 were considered out of control. Nearly a quarter of the fires burning in Canada were in Quebec.
This year has seen a record-breaking fire season for Canada, and it’s still early. More than 29,393 square miles have burned this year, exceeding the record set in 1989 of 29,187 square miles, according to the National Forestry Database.
Contributing: Gave Hauari, Jeanine Santucci, Grace Hauck, USA TODAY; the Associated Press
