Overview

• Air quality alerts are in effect across every region of Minnesota including the Twin Cities, over a dozen Wisconsin counties and large portions of Michigan, with fine particulate (PM2.5) levels in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups to Unhealthy categories.
• The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and the National Weather Service have updated overlapping county-level advisories for both peninsulas, extending protective measures into early Saturday.
• Forecasters predict that shifting winds will drive the Canadian smoke plume northward by Friday afternoon, paving the way for gradual air quality improvement from southern counties upward.
• Health authorities recommend that people with respiratory or heart conditions limit outdoor exertion, close windows, run air conditioning with MERV-13 filters and monitor for symptoms such as coughing, chest tightness or palpitations.
• The alerts stem from heavy smoke drifting southward from Saskatchewan and Manitoba wildfires, a transboundary pattern that has also prompted ground-level ozone advisories in parts of the Northeast.