Current:Home > MarketsAir quality plummets as Canadian wildfire smoke stretches across the Midwest -FutureWise Finance
Air quality plummets as Canadian wildfire smoke stretches across the Midwest
View
Date:2025-04-15 06:01:34
Smoke from wildfires in Canada is again blanketing parts of the U.S. with a thick haze that's reducing visibility and prompting air quality warnings in several states.
States across the Midwest are bearing the brunt of the wildfire smoke, which for a short time on Tuesday caused Chicago to have among the worst air quality in the world.
Other cities — including Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh — were also facing "very unhealthy" air quality levels.
The National Weather Service said the poor air quality caused by wildfire smoke could persist for a couple of days, though forecast specifics may change.
Parts of the Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes, the Western Ohio Valley, the Central Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic were affected, the NWS said.
When the air quality plummets, experts recommend that people stay indoors as much as possible (and keep pets inside except for quick bathroom breaks), wear an N95 or similar respirator outside and limit strenuous activity.
Studies have shown that wildfires in the U.S. are growing in frequency, length and size due in part to climate change, and the United Nations says a similar trend is occurring across the globe.
Canada has been having a particularly brutal wildfire season this year, with out-of-control blazes popping up across the country, straining the country's firefighting resources and sending smoke across its southern border with the U.S.
Canada currently has around 480 active fires, and officials reported Monday that the country had already broken the record for the most destructive fire season in history.
Smoke from the powerful fires even reached as far as Europe this week, with a grayish haze affecting parts of Portugal, Spain and France. It wasn't expected to have the same impact on human health as it has in the U.S.
Millions of people along the East Coast were under air quality warnings earlier this month, when smoke from the Canadian wildfires floated over cities such as Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.
veryGood! (329)
Related
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Billie Jean King still globetrotting in support of investment, equity in women’s sports
- Social Security recipients will get a smaller increase in benefits as inflation cools
- D-backs slug 4 homers in record-setting barrage, sweep Dodgers with 4-2 win in Game 3 of NLDS
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- Chipotle to raise menu prices for 4th time in 2 years
- A Japanese court rules it’s unconstitutional to require surgery for a change of gender on documents
- Caroline Ellison says working at FTX with Bankman-Fried led her to lie and steal
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- Judge in Trump's New York fraud trial explains why there's no jury
Ranking
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- Why the world's water system is becoming 'increasingly erratic'
- While the news industry struggles, college students are supplying some memorable journalism
- Can states ease homelessness by tapping Medicaid funding? Oregon is betting on it
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- Instead of embracing FBI's 'College Basketball Columbo,' NCAA should have faced reality
- Caroline Ellison says working at FTX with Bankman-Fried led her to lie and steal
- The US is moving quickly to boost Israel’s military. A look at what assistance it is providing
Recommendation
'As foretold in the prophecy': Elon Musk and internet react as Tesla stock hits $420 all
New 'Frasier' review: Kelsey Grammer leads a new cast in embarrassingly bad revival
Peter Thomas Roth Flash Deal: Get $156 Worth of Retinol for $69 and Reduce Wrinkles Overnight
'All cake': Bryce Harper answers Orlando Arcia's barbs – and lifts Phillies to verge of NLCS
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Kentucky man, 96, tried to kill 90-year-old wife who has dementia, police say
More than 90% of people killed by western Afghanistan quake were women and children, UN says
Josh Duggar to Remain in Prison Until 2032 After Appeal in Child Pornography Case Gets Rejected