Air quality plummeted across more than a dozen states Wednesday – some to “very unhealthy” levels – as smoke from Canadian wildfires pours across the border and into the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and even into the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic states.
Widespread air quality index (AQI) readings above 200 and even higher than 250 in some spots can be found in major metro areas, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland and Indianapolis, denoting “very unhealthy” conditions.
WHAT TO DO WHEN WILDFIRE SMOKE SMOTHERS YOUR AREA, AND HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOME’S AIR CLEAN
You can track the current air quality levels and alerts here, as well as get a forecast of where the smoke is expected to head over the next 24 hours.
The AQI ranges from 0 to 500 and has six color-coded categories corresponding to a different level of health concern. Lower numbers equate to better air quality, and higher numbers equate to poorer air quality.
Anything red or worse on the map below denotes at least unhealthy air quality, with purples denoting very unhealthy conditions and maroon indicating hazardous air quality that should relegate everyone to stay indoors as much as possible.
WHAT IS THE AIR QUALITY INDEX?
Find specific information on the alerts through the National Weather Service’s current warnings and advisory page.
Here are the latest computer projections of where the smoke is expected. The forecasts are updated each hour, and we have provided the current smoke coverage and forecast maps for 6, 12 and 24 hours into the future.
A regular assessment of air quality in the U.S. started in 1976, about six years after the Environmental Protection Agency was created.
According to AirNow.gov, the law requires any metropolitan area with a population of more than 350,000 to report air quality daily.
The air quality index as we know it today was released in 1999, according to AirNow.gov. It has gone through several updates over the years, but the goal has always been the same – to offer people an easy-to-understand daily report about the air they’re breathing and indicate what air quality is dangerous.