For the last several days,
you've been sending us picturesf
those hazy shades of spring with smoke
following the wind hundreds of s
from wildfires in northern Cana.
And it's not just Minnesota thas
seeing this. That is Sheridan,
WY about 3:30 this afternoon.
And you wouldn't know it from
the picture you're looking at,
but there are 10,000 feet tall.
Mountains should be in that pho,
but with the haze,
you can't even see them normall.
Totally visible.
The thickest of that smoke is jt
beginning to hit our metro area right now,
and experts say it's nothing
to really mess around with.
In fact, it prompted A statewidr
quality alert today. Whole stat.
That's somewhat where it rare.
Kent's been tracking it literaly
all afternoon.
I've been watching him do this
and talking to experts about wht
this means for the summer ahead.
I can't.
Hi, Jana. Now I'm no meteorologist here,
but I'm going to do my best to show you
what's going on right now, This.
It shows the air quality readins
across the state right now and
all of that red as you imagine,
it's not very good.
It represents air that is unhealthy for
everyone and that is due to the smoke
that's crept across our state all day.
I'm told the worst of it will
blow through by about midnight,
but the threat fueling it,
it's not going anywhere.
It's hard to grasp the impact of
the current outbreak of wildfirs
in northern Alberta, Canada,
until you view them from space.
These images from earlier this
week show what initially led to
hazy skies across our state and
eventually fueled the bands of n
heavier smoke that blew in behid
our most recent cold front. What
we saw yesterday with the smoke
in North Dakota was probably the
worst that they've ever measure.
We'll have to see, when the day's over,
how western Minnesota
looks, which is why David Brown
and the other air quality.
Meteorologists with the Minnesoa
Pollution Control Agency issueda
rare statewide air quality aler.
This is only the 3rd statewide r
quality alert that we've issued all three
times it's been for wildfire smoke. What
do we know about where wildfire smoke
coming into our state ranks in s
of air pollution?
The wildfire smoke events that we've seen,
especially in 2021 and this one here,
produce air quality impacts that
are significantly higher than wt
we generally see from everyday.
Sources of emissions that were used to,
like, you know, factories and c.
Historically, he says, the smoke
doesn't tend to stick around lo.
But that shifted in 2021,
when another outbreak of Canadin
fires led to the socalled summef
smoke and several of the worst r
quality readings we've ever see.
We had wildfire smoke almost
the entire month of July that
impacted some parts of Minnesot.
Just came in wave after wave.
Unfortunately, he says,
the timing and trail of this sme
could lead to an even longer su.
It's concerning that we're.
Seeing smoke this early
in the wildfire season,
typically we see these events in July,
August, maybe September.
We may see, you know,
wave after wave again dependingn
how the weather patterns set up.
It is concerning how often
this is happening now.
And Dr. Charlene McAvoy with Res
Hospital says that could result in wave
after wave of health complicati.
This poor air quality increases
the inflammation in our bodies.
Most of our chronic conditions
are many of them are related to
that inflammation in our bodies.
So we will see an increase in ht
attacks with regards to lungs,
especially people who've got
asthma and that's even young ki,
not just adults and we call COP,
So that's emphysema,
chronic obstructive bronchitis,
all that also aggravates,
causes more inflammation.
I hope that people.
Are able to just take it easy ad
at the very least, David
hopes people stay informed.
Obviously there's nothing we can do to
control the fires that are out of state,
but we can still do something to
keep an eye on it and let people know
ahead of time when smokes moving in so
they can plan their days accordingly.
Because we've seen that the smoe
can be extremely heavy and havee
significant health impacts on people.
And Speaking of planning accordingly,
there are some really helpful
tools to navigate days like
this I found out about today,
including the APA's EPA's Air Now app,
which gives you hourly updates n
the air quality right where you.
And Speaking of that,
we hit the red in just the last
few minutes before the show in
the metro area in the last hour.
That's why you might be noticing
that smoke and that smell right.
That means it's a good idea for everyone
to limit their time outside, I'm told.
And if you can't,
try to keep your strenuous.
This activity to a minimum.