The winds push the smoke from Canadian fires to the south in the United States …

The air quality in some parts of the United States is worsening while the smoking of dozens of fires in Canada travels to the south, driven by the winds at the top in the atmosphere.

Through parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, air quality is considered unhealthy for people and animals sensitive to pollution and other particles scattered in the air, according to the Aornow page of the environmental protection agency.

Starting from Friday afternoon, the interactive map of the air quality showed a strip of orange that moved from the north -ovest to the south -est through Wisconsin.

Most of the state showed a moderate air quality as well as the whole upper peninsula of Michigan.

The Eastern Iowa and the north -north -western Ilinois also showed a moderate air quality on the ANNOW map.

During the following day, particulates from the on fire trees, leaves and other vegetation could arrive further south in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, said Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist of the National Weather Service in Duluth, in Minnesota.

Murray Kinsey, owner of a floating company just outside Babbtt, in Minnesota, said on Friday afternoon that the sky was “confused”, but the fishermen were still fishing on the nearby Lake Birch.

“He’s becoming a little difficult to breathe,” said Kinsey. “But it’s not terrible. We never had it before, but it was much worse.”

What is Aqi and who is at risk?

The air quality index – AQI – measures how clean or polluted the air we breathe daily is. The index focuses on the health effects that could be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air.

The AQI is calculated on the basis of the soil level, to pollution from particles or to particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The ozone on the ground and the particles dispersed in the air are the two pollutants that represent the greatest threat to human health in this country.

The index goes from green, where air quality is satisfactory and air pollution represents a low or null risk, in brown, which is considered dangerous. That level comes with health warnings of the emergency conditions in which everyone is more likely to be affected, according to Aornow.

On Friday morning, the AQI showed orange around the arrow tip, in the minnesota, in the area, that Ayd said that it is a concern for people with chronic conditions, the elderly and young children. “They should really limit their time outdoors,” he added.

The path of the orange area has moved to the south and south more -East throughout the afternoon.

The level under the orange is yellow and considered moderate, where air quality is acceptable. This is what the maps showed on Friday for some other parts of the Midwest.

Any Canadian fire smoke can come across thunderstorms scattered for Friday evening in the Chicago area.

“It seems that the smoke is moving behind the cold front,” said the meteorologist Nws Zachary Yack. Most of the smoke is “thinning behind the front,” he said.

But the levels of fine particles should reach the red air quality index in the northern minnesota, a unwanted level for everyone, according to the minnesota pollution control agency. The Department for the Environmental Quality of North Dakota has declared to monitor air quality levels and recommended people to limit prolonged external activities.

To limit the exposure to unhealthy air quality, people should remain closed with closed windows and doors. Avoid a heavy outdoor effort, using fans or swamp refrigerators that take air from the outside, all wood -to -wood appliances and illuminate candles and incense.

Where are the Canadian fires?

Almost two dozens of fires were burning in the Canadian province of Manitoba, which is located just north of Minnesota and North Dakota. So far this year, the province had had more than 100 fires.

Wednesday, Manitoba declared the state of emergency while the fires forced 17,000 people to evacuate the houses in different communities.

The Canadian fire season goes from May to September. His worst fire season was in 2023. He suffered much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.

“We are taking smoking,” said Kevin Doom, meteorologist of the National Weather Service in Chicago. “The winds approached the atmosphere – 10,000, 20,000 feet away – are blowing from North today. Minnesota is taking the weight at the moment.”

“The wind will drag that smoke over the next day or two,” added Doom.

Doom said a little haze was showing Chicago on Friday morning.

“He will continue to move with the wind,” he continued. “But over time it will continue to disperse, mix with the air until you subtle until you attenuate.”

How did the past fires influenced air quality?

Last summer, the fires in flames in California, Oregon, Arizona, State of Washington and other parts of the West, as well as Canada, filled the skies of smoke and haze, forcing some areas affected to declare notices or notices of air quality.

Two years ago, Smoky Air From Wildfires also in Canada also enveloped large bands of the United States and has pushed warnings for people to stay inside.

[AP]

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