At least twelve states have issued air quality alerts and advisories due to the ongoing Canadian wildfires sending smoke down to the Great Lakes region and the northeastern United States, the National Weather Service reported on Tuesday.
Wisconsin and Michigan remain subject to an “orange” air quality index, with some areas in those states being placed under a “red” alert.
The remaining 10 states affected by medium to heavy smoke from the wildfires are Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Minnesota. Those states largely issued “orange” alerts.
The Canadian wildfires’ smoke is expected to clear out in most areas by Wednesday.
Detroit, New York City, and Chicago were some of the cities with the worst air quality in the world as of Tuesday afternoon, according to IQAir. The three cities ranked 5th, 8th, and 10th, respectively.
Meanwhile, air conditions in Toronto and Montreal significantly improved as they were no longer among the top 20 cities with the worst air quality globally.
There are about 742 active fires across Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Of those, 198 fires were considered out of control, and another 306 out-of-control fires were being closely monitored. Manitoba and British Columbia both had the highest number of fires.
So far this year, slightly fewer than 4,070 wildfires have burned over 16.5 million acres of land in Canada.
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Poor air quality is also affecting parts of California, where a wildfire has burned more than 72,000 acres of land in the Los Padres National Forest.
Red flag warnings for Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming went into effect on Monday. Officials are concerned that strong winds coupled with low relative humidity and warm temperatures could create the conditions ripe for fires across those states.