REGION – Smoky conditions are now taking over much of the region.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on Tuesday issued an air quality alert for the entire state of Minnesota until 5 p.m. on Saturday.
According to the agency, a majority of the state will experience unhealthy air quality, with areas extreme eastern Minnesota – Duluth and the North Shore – experiencing ‘very unhealthy’ air quality.
Northerly winds will continue transporting waves of heavy surface smoke from wildfires across Manitoba and Saskatchewan into Minnesota. Smoke will move south across all of Minnesota and linger through Saturday afternoon. The smoke will be reinforced by an area of high pressure that will create light winds and limit the dispersion of smoke.
According to the AirNow website, air quality for eastern North Dakota is in the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ category, which means anyone with heart or lung disease should take steps to reduce exposure to the smoke in the air. A Hazardous Weather Outlook issued Wednesday afternoon by the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks calls for the air quality impacts to continue through at least Friday.
