Minnesota air quality alert expanded; poor air quality through Friday night
MN weather: Warm with smoky sunshine Thursday
It’s quiet with clearing skies, smoky sunshine, and highs in the mid-80s for Thursday. FOX 9 meteorologist Keith Marler has the full forecast.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - An air quality alert due to wildfire smoke from Canada has been expanded to include the Twin Cities metro and much of northern, central and southwestern Minnesota until Friday night.
RELATED: Minnesota weather: Clearing to smoky sunshine on Thursday
Wildfire smoke from Canada causing poor air quality
Local perspective:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on Wednesday expanded the air quality alert issued earlier in the week to include northern, central, south central and southwest Minnesota until 11 p.m. on Friday. This alert includes the Twin Cities metro area.
An air quality alert is in effect for Minnesota until 11 p.m. on Friday.
Fine particle levels are expected to reach the red air quality index category, which is a level considered unhealthy for everyone, across northern and central Minnesota. This includes Brainerd, Alexandria, Hinckley, Bemidji, East Grand Forks, Moorhead, International Falls, Duluth, and more.
Meanwhile, the Twin Cities and much of central, south central and southwest Minnesota, are in the orange air quality index category, which is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Dig deeper:
A band of heavy smoke from wildfires in Saskatchewan and Manitoba began moving into northwestern Minnesota on Wednesday. This smoke was expected to reach southwestern Minnesota by Thursday morning.
Smoke is expected to move into the northeast and central portions of the state by Thursday morning, and by Thursday afternoon smoke will reach east central and south central Minnesota, the MPCA says.
"Some uncertainty remains regarding how far south the ground-level smoke will reach by Friday morning, when winds are expected to become southerly and push the smoke back to the north. Air quality should improve gradually from south to north beginning Friday afternoon, with improvement in fine particle levels below the alert threshold expected by the end of Friday," the MPCA states.