Relief from thick wildfire smoke burning in Canada and smothering major U.S. cities may be in sight for some as the Fourth of July holiday weekend gets underway.
Winds carried the smoke south into the Great Lakes and Midwest earlier this week, but spread out into the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley, and even into parts of the Southeast toward the end of the week, the FOX Forecast Center said.
At times, major cities like New York, Cleveland and Pittsburgh were once again breathing air considered unhealthy or even “very unhealthy.” Air quality alerts were even in effect as far south as Atlanta by Friday afternoon as a plume of wildfire smoke spread south along the Appalachians.
Cities with the worst Air Quality Index (AQI) readings at last check Saturday morning were Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Waterbury, Connecticut, Greenfield, Massachusets, and the Central New York region. Each of those cities had an AQI reading over 150, meaning “unhealthy,” the third-worst reading on the AQI index.
There was mild improvement along the Northeast’s I-95 corridor Saturday morning, with AQI levels dropping below 150 around New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC area.
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In the Northeast, air quality alerts remain for eastern New York as well as Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The entire state of Michigan also remains under an air quality alert through Saturday night.
Until air quality alerts are lifted, health experts warned individuals in unhealthy air quality levels to limit their outdoor activity to reduce the effects of the toxic air.
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But while air quality remains unhealthy in some areas, conditions are expected to gradually improve in the coming days as the smoke disperses.
The map below is tracking the wildfire smoke. By Sunday morning, much of the Great Lakes will experience much clearer, more smoke-free skies, while smokier skies will linger along the Atlantic coastline though at much less concentrated levels than earlier this week.
The week of poor air quality began in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes area, where cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit found their skylines obscured by thick wildfire smoke.
Air quality significantly improved earlier this week across much of Illinois south of Chicago after Thursday’s ferocious winds associated with a derecho cleaned out the atmosphere.
The winds didn’t reach Cleveland, which woke to smoky skies Friday, where air quality alerts remained in place across northeast Ohio. Yet sky conditions were much improved in Ohio as the weekend began.