Please continue enjoying the coolest summer of the rest of your lives.
After a short reprieve from wildfire smoke in much of the Lower 48 states, the next outburst from Canada will pour into the Upper Midwest into the weekend, compromising air quality.
Thick smoke from the fires is degrading air quality in multiple Canadian provinces. And a cold front is pushing it southward past the international border and into the Northern Plains and Great Lakes region.
All of Minnesota and Wisconsin are under air quality alerts Friday and into the weekend. Although no alerts are in effect over the Dakotas and Montana, the air quality has begun to deteriorate there as well.
Cities at risk of smoke pollution through Saturday include Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Fargo, N.D., and perhaps Chicago.
The source of the smoke is major blazes that are scorching British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, amid Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.
A trailing cold front from a storm system moving through central Canada is the primary mechanism dragging smoke southward into the United States. Weather patterns signal the likelihood of more smoke spilling into the Lower 48 through the weekend and probably beyond.
