Latest news with #wildfireSmoke
CTV News
3 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Wildfire haze moves into Edmonton and could linger through Thursday
A view of the Edmonton skyline as the air quality index reaches dangerous levels on June 11, 2025. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton) The Air Quality Health Index has increased to a 'moderate risk' for the Edmonton region as wildfire smoke has moved into the area from the southeast. The smoke originally pushed into southeast Alberta from Saskatchewan, but Wednesday's south eastly wind has drawn some of the smoke north toward Edmonton. You can see the reduced air quality stretching from Edmonton down to Medicine Hat on this map from early Wednesday afternoon. Air quality Air quality map. (Credit: We're expecting the haze to linger over Edmonton and area through to the end of the day Thursday. But, conditions should improve on Friday and early indications are that wildfire smoke shouldn't be an issue for the coming weekend.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Chicago Air Quality Alert issued through Tuesday night for Canadian wildfire smoke
An Air Quality Alert has been issued through Tuesday for the Chicago area from wildfire smoke coming in from Canada. The Air Quality Alert went into effect at noon Monday, for air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups, including babies and children and the elderly. The alert expands to all of Northwest Indiana on Tuesday. Smoke from wildfires in Canada started being dragged down into the Upper Midwest over the weekend, then further into the Chicago area as the week begins. Manitoba is under a state of emergency due to the wildfires, which have prompted 12,600 people to evacuate their homes. The fires in the central Canadian province have burned over 3,861 square miles. There are also wildfires in Saskatchewan. An Air Pollution Action Day has been issued by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for Tuesday, July 15 for the greater Chicago metropolitan area, for ozone levels that will be at unhealthy levels for sensitive groups. If you have asthma or pulmonary or respiratory diseases, you are strongly encouraged to limit prolonged outdoor activities while the alert and action day are in effect.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Air quality alert to continue through Tuesday night for Metro Detroit
An Air Quality Alert will be in effect through midnight Tuesday for Southeast Michigan, the state's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy announced Monday. The alert is an extension of an existing alert that was issued statewide Saturday and expected to expire Monday night because of drifting wildfire smoke from Canada. But the conditions for Tuesday will be more region-specific and are attributed to a forecast of elevated ozone levels. The counties of Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Saginaw, Sanilac, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne are listed in Tuesday's alert. Pollutants are expected to be in the Orange AQI range, which is "unhealthy for sensitive groups."
National Post
04-06-2025
- Health
- National Post
Canadian wildfire smoke causes 'very unhealthy' conditions in American Midwest and reaches Europe
Article content 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. Article content 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.' Article content 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. Article content 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.' Article content 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. Article content 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. Article content 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 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg. Article content Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. Article content The smoke reaches Europe Article content 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. Article content 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. Article content '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. Article content The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus. Article content
