Wildfire smoke is driving terrible air quality in major cities, but relief is coming

Wildfire smoke is driving terrible air quality – Thick, choking plumes of smoke from wildfires in Canada are pouring into major cities across the Midwest, Northeast and mid-Atlantic, bringing dangerous air quality to more than 100 million people. The polluted air will last through at least Saturday in some areas as new waves of smoke waft south. 🔥 Track air quality and get your forecast in the CNN Weather app Here’s the latest: • Millions affected: More than 100 million people in 18 states and the District of Columbia are under air quality alerts.

“Very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality stretches from northeast Minnesota to southeast Virginia. • Widening reach: Smoke is being carried south Friday, and Washington, DC, is now experiencing dangerous air quality. But the smoke is still on the move: weather patterns will determine which cities have the worst air quality each day.

• MLB game postponed: The Cleveland Guardians game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was postponed Friday due to poor air quality in the Cleveland area. The game will be made up Saturday in a split doubleheader. Sporting events like the RowFest National Championships In Michigan were also called off Friday.

• Event cancellations and closures: Smoke put a damper on outdoor summer events across major US cities. Events ranging from a baby parade in Flint, Michigan, to a rock concert in Herndon, Virginia, and the America’s Mile marathon in Pittsburgh were cancelled Friday as smoke lingered. Businesses have also suffered during a busy season: Amusement parks like Kennywood and Sandcastle Water Park in Pennsylvania were shuttered due to the poor air quality.

• Relief is coming: Multiple rounds of thunderstorms are possible from the lower Great Lakes into the Northeast on Saturday. Wildfire smoke may still cause hazy skies and unhealthy air, especially early Saturday, but we expect it to thin from west to east. Rain, shifting winds and a cold front should eventually help clear the smoke, though air quality may not improve everywhere immediately.

• Where it’s worst: Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit had some of the worst air quality in the country Friday morning, but dangerous levels of pollution stretched into southern Ohio and West Virginia. “Chicago is currently experiencing its worst air quality in recorded history,” the mayor’s office said in a social media post Thursday evening. “Please stay indoors, and if you must go outdoors, use a well-fitted N95 or KN95 mask for your safety.” The Detroit Health Department is offering free masks to residents on Friday and encouraging everyone to stay inside.

In Philadelphia, “everyone is likely to experience health effects from being exposed” to smoke in the air Friday, officials warned in a media release. In the nation’s capital, DC Health is distributing masks to government personnel working outside, the department told CNN Friday. Government outdoor activities have been canceled and outdoor pools and spray parks have closed, it added.

Wildfire smoke engulfs major cities How you can minimize the health risks of wildfire smoke People are making wildfire bets on prediction markets. Experts say it could lead to disaster Residents from Minnesota to Washington, DC, told CNN the noxious air has disrupted their lives, seeping into everything from their health and leisure to their businesses and family life. For some, the shutdowns and masking guidance brought flashbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic about six years ago.

DC mom Erin Cotton told CNN she did not notice the smoke until her eyes started to water and her 5- and 1-year-old children complained they felt itchy. “That’s when I remembered what I felt like during the Palisades Fire,” said Cotton, who lived in California during the deadly fire last year. On Friday, her daughter’s summer camp activities were upended and it took Cotton twice as long to drive as traffic swelled in DC, with most driving instead of walking.

“The kids showed up in their swimsuits but could not go outside to play because of how bad the air quality and smoke was,” she said. “All the kids had meltdowns.” Another DC resident, Abigail Nguyen, was excited to enjoy a warm summer outdoors before the smoke left her hesitant to go outside for her routine runs to the National Mall and daily walks with her dog. “I can’t see three blocks down.

Everything is so hazy outside. My eyes were actually stinging a bit,” she said. “You can tell the air is harder to breath from the smoke.

I’ve never experienced this type of air before.” Nguyen planned to watch the World Cup on the National Mall, but now she says she’ll just watch it with her roommates at home. “I can’t really get the full effect and energy of the crowd, which is so sad, because we should be celebrating this summer event instead of being holed up inside.” A California transplant who lives in Pennsylvania, Coty Jen, said she has “experienced way more wildfires than I want to.” “I have my air filter on, and I’m still wearing an N95 mask in my office,” said Jen, a chemical engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “It comes in through the seams of the window, through the doors.

It’s all-encompassing, and it makes my lungs hurt, it gives me headaches.” Vulnerable communities, including those with health conditions and people who are unhoused or work outdoors, have endured disproportionate effects from the unsafe air quality. Jerrel Gilliam, executive director of Pittsburgh nonprofit Light of Life Rescue Mission, says community workers are checking on unhoused individuals more often and adding masks to hygiene kits they distribute. “Homelessness becomes even more dangerous in weather like this because of dehydration.

People are sweating and they’re not able to replenish the water, and so they’re at risk,” Gilliam said. In Ohio, Dr. Megan Conroy said she anticipates helping patients with asthma through the weekend and into next week.

“My patients will tell me … they are noticing those symptoms, having to take their rescue medications and be very cognizant of their activities,” the pulmonologist said. While some businesses relying on summer traffic have been forced to temporarily close their doors, others refuse to let the smoke alter their plans. The Northern Lakes Arts Association in Ely, Minnesota, is opening its production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” Friday night as wildfires rage.

“Let’s create a space where community can gather and have an experience together, and hopefully offer them a reprieve from the smoke and the fire, and then like the constant dread of like who knows what tomorrow is going to bring,” Ian Francis Lah, the executive artistic director, told CNN. Smoke has already been an issue this summer in parts of the West, Plains and Midwest as stateside fires have burned more than 3.6 million acres, mostly in the western half of the country. But the thicker smoke that has moved in this week is from wildfires to the north.

In Canada, 3,500 fires have burned more than 6 million acres this summer, with a dozen blazes flaring up in Ontario in recent weeks, filling the skies with smoke drifting south, like it did in an extreme way in 2023. Canadian wildfire activity this year is nowhere near the hyperactivity of 2023 but the combination of wildfires in Ontario and a heat dome in the central US spells smoky trouble for millions. Planet-heating fossil fuel pollution is increasing the chance of prolonged smoke seasons as it tips the odds that extreme wildfire seasons like 2023’s — Canada’s worst season on record — won’t remain an outlier for long.

Wildfire smoke contains dangerous, tiny pollutants called PM2.5 that can travel deep into the lungs or enter the bloodstream when inhaled. The minuscule particles can lead to breathing problems like bronchitis and cause inflammation that aggravates diabetes, heart disease and other health conditions. People with lung or heart disease, children and older adults are especially at risk for smoke-related illness.

The NWS advises people avoid smoke by limiting outdoor activities and keeping windows closed overnight. In the US, the window for outbreaks of unhealthy wildfire smoke is getting bigger, as fire seasons in the West have become longer and more extreme. Climate change was found to be responsible for the majority of the increase of surface wildfire smoke.

This smoke has eroded decades of air quality improvements in parts of the US, particularly in the West. Canada’s record-breaking smoke event was so far-reaching, a study from last year estimates more than 350 million people were exposed to daily wildfire smoke-induced air pollution. Planet-warming pollution caused approximately 15,000 more deaths in the US from wildfire particulate matter from 2006 to 2020 than would have otherwise occurred in a cooler world, a study published last year found.