Unhealthy air in the U.S.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires is blanketing Chicago and much of the Great Lakes region, creating unhealthy air quality conditions.
Chicago and Detroit have the worst air quality in the world Tuesday, according to IQAir.com, a tracking service.
The National Weather Service has issued air quality alerts for northeastern Illinois, northwestern Indiana and all of southeast Michigan for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Around 92 million people in the U.S. were under air quality alerts Tuesday evening.
Rain likely won’t be enough to extinguish the wildfires ravaging northern Quebec, but the wet weather could give firefighters a chance to get ahead of the flames, officials said, as Canada surpassed the record for area burned by wildfires this week.
Drifting smoke from wildfires across Canada is creating curtains of haze and raising air quality concerns throughout the Great Lakes region and in parts of the central and eastern United States.
Meanwhile, NASA reports that smoke from wildfires in northern Quebec has reached Europe. The space agency said satellite imagery from yesterday showed smoke extending across the North Atlantic Ocean to the Iberian Peninsula, France and other parts of western Europe.
Health authorities in Ohio joined those in other states in warning residents to take precautions because of unhealthy air because of Canada wildfire smoke.
It’s the second time in three weeks that smoke from the wildfires drifting south has caused air quality problems in Ohio, said Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the state Health Department, in a statement.
h/t StellaBlue