US air quality levels slowly improve following brutal smoke-filled week
The air quality across portions of the Midwest reached "dangerous" levels over the past week, with one city completely shrouded by smoke at one point. While some relief is in sight, smoke-filled skies might become the defining trait of the summer for parts of the U.S.
Thick clouds of smoke from Canada's record-breaking wildfires returned to the northern United States over the past week, causing air quality to reach dangerous levels in what forecasters say will be "the summer of smoke and haze."
Air quality alerts were out across 12 states in the Midwest and Northeast at the end of the week as the smoke shrouded the sky. A majority of these alerts had ended by Saturday morning as air quality slowly began to improve.
Many Chicago residents woke up Tuesday to a city shrouded in what could have been mistaken as a thick fog at first if not for the worsening air quality. Big cities in the Midwest like Chicago and Detroit had dangerous air quality levels on Tuesday, according to Plume Labs, which is owned by AccuWeather. Both of the cities reached or exceeded a value of 250 on AccuWeather's Air Quality Index, which falls within the scale's most severe category, labeled as "dangerous." This means that any exposure to the air, even for a few minutes, can lead to serious health effects on everyone.
As the smoke spread east, it completely hid the Cleveland skyline from view in a smoky haze Wednesday morning. The AQI at the time had reached 307, one of the highest AQI values that Plume Labs recorded throughout the week alongside of the AQI value of 314 reached in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Tuesday evening.
A smokey haze hides the Cleveland skyline on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (EarthCam)
"I do believe this will go down as the summer of smoke and haze for much of Canada and large portions of the northern U.S.," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said. "[There are] just way too many massive fires burning throughout Canada, which will likely keep burning until the first snows during the fall season."
Over 500 active fires were burning across Canada as of Saturday, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). By Saturday morning, the total acreage burned this year had topped 20 million. For context, the state of South Carolina is approximately 20.5 million acres. The previous record was set in 1995 when wildfires burned more than 17.5 million acres across the nation.
Of the fires active on Saturday, at least 253 of them were considered to be "out of control." Since the start of the year, there have been 3,094 wildfires across Canada, according to the CIFFC, most of which started due to natural causes such as lightning strikes.
Anderson added that this doesn't mean that most days in the Northeast or Midwest will be hazy or smoky for the rest of the summer, but it may be a "tough season," especially for people who have asthma or a lung disease.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert on Friday, urging people to watch for symptoms associated with wildfire smoke exposure. "Acute symptoms" include a headache, chest pain, coughing, sneezing, eye irritation, trouble breathing and fatigue. Those experiencing symptoms should seek medical attention.
The smoke had already prompted the cancellation of summer camps in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh on Thursday due to health concerns for young campers. A sold-out Robert Plant-Allison Krauss concert at the outdoor Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, was also canceled Wednesday in light of a Summit County Public Health Statement.
Air quality levels appeared to have improved drastically in Cincinnati by Friday evening, just in time for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour show in the city. While the air quality was still poor by the time the concert began, the AQI levels were nowhere near where they had been Wednesday and Thursday when the values had been in the triple digits.
While a change in the wind direction will clear out some of the smoke into early week, AccuWeather meteorologists continue to warn that it will likely return throughout the summer, though the end of the season may have smoke originating farther out west. With that in mind, a swath of haze and smoke is in the forecast for some in the Northwest and northern Plains, as well as much of Canada. Cities such as Seattle and Calgary may have to contend with hazy skies and reduced air quality.
"I expect the worst of the smoke to originate more from western Canada during the second half of the summer, thus more of the smoke in the East may be elevated above the surface," Anderson said. "However, if the wind shifts into the north or northwest, that can still bring down the smoke from Ontario and Quebec, which is much closer and more likely to produce smoke closer to the ground."
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