{"id":767089,"date":"2026-07-16T22:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767089\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:04:32","slug":"air-quality-plummets-in-20-us-states-as-smoke-from-canadian-wildfires-spreads-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767089\/","title":{"rendered":"Air quality plummets in 20 US states as smoke from Canadian wildfires spreads | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smoke from wildfires burning in south-central Canada and parts of Minnesota<\/a> is spreading across the US, prompting air quality alerts in more than 20 states with millions of Americans expected to face unhealthy air conditions this week.<\/p>\n

The smoke from the more than 180<\/a> active wildfires in northern Ontario<\/a> briefly made Toronto\u2019s air quality among the worst in the world<\/a> on Wednesday. By Wednesday night<\/a>, the smoke had spread across several US states, from Minnesota, where multiple wildfires are also burning,<\/a> to New York, blanketing the skies in haze and worsening air quality.<\/p>\n

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said<\/a> that winds carried smoke from the Ontario fires \u201cprimarily south-east over much of the southern part of the province, as well as parts of Quebec and the US midwest and north-east, tinting the sky shades of gray and yellow and the sun orange in many areas\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minneapolis is obscured by wildfire smoke on Wednesday. Photograph: Steven Garcia\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, air quality alerts have been issued for parts of North Carolina<\/a>, Minnesota<\/a>, Vermont<\/a>, Connecticut<\/a>, New York<\/a>, Massachusetts<\/a>, Rhode Island<\/a>, New Jersey<\/a>, New Hampshire<\/a>, Pennsylvania<\/a>, Illinois, <\/a>Indiana<\/a>, Ohio<\/a>, Delaware<\/a>, West Virginia<\/a>, Colorado<\/a>, Virginia<\/a>, Maryland<\/a>, Washington DC<\/a>, Michigan<\/a> and Wisconsin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to a map of air quality conditions<\/a> provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency, air quality was at \u201cunhealthy\u201d levels on Thursday morning in parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Michigan with officials urging residents to \u201ctake precautions by reducing outdoor, activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, the air quality was rated as \u201cvery unhealthy\u201d in parts of Pennsylvania<\/a>, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana, while in certain parts of Pennsylvania, Michigan, including near Detroit, as well as areas of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the air quality was listed as \u201chazardous\u201d, with officials urging residents there to stay indoors.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, Minneapolis was listed as the city that now has the most polluted air in the world on IQAir<\/a>\u2019s global rankings, followed by Detroit and Chicago.<\/p>\n

A street in Northbrook, Illinois, on Thursday. Photograph: Nam Y Huh\/AP<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service in Detroit warned<\/a> on Thursday that \u201csmoke is expected to be most dense this afternoon and tonight with reduced visibilities\u201d.<\/p>\n

In New York, officials extended<\/a> the city\u2019s heat emergency plan operations, including the opening of hundreds of cooling centers, as \u201chigh temperatures and heat indices continue and smoke from significant, still-spreading wildfires in western Ontario, Canada, moves into the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s dangerously hot and smoke from Canadian wildfires has worsened our air quality, which means New Yorkers need to be extra vigilant to stay safe,\u201d said Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, New York City\u2019s mayor. He urged residents to stay in air-conditioned spaces, to limit outdoor activity and to stay hydrated.<\/p>\n

Kathy Hochul, New York\u2019s governor, announced that more than 100,000<\/a> N95-style masks were being made available to counties in need, with additional masks being made available for commuters at Penn Station and Grand Central.<\/p>\n

New York officials also warned <\/a>that this could become New York City\u2019s \u201cmost significant smoke event\u201d since 2023, when smoke from Canadian wildfires pushed air quality to hazardous levels<\/a>, and blanketed the city in an orange haze.<\/p>\n

While officials said that this week\u2019s conditions currently \u201cdo not indicate a repeat of 2023\u2019s peak levels\u201d, authorities said that they were closely monitoring for any deterioration.<\/p>\n

Weather officials in New York City said on Thursday<\/a> that \u201cwildfire smoke will continue to reduce visibility and air quality through this evening\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The air quality alert for New York remains in effect until midnight<\/a> on Thursday, and rain is expected on Saturday,<\/a> ahead of Sunday\u2019s highly anticipated World Cup final in New Jersey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Buffalo, New York, the air quality was expected to be in the \u201cvery unhealthy\u201d category on Thursday, forecasters said.<\/a><\/p>\n

A watercraft sits in the Detroit River on Thursday in Detroit. Photograph: Paul Sancya\/AP<\/p>\n

In Boston, forecasters warned on<\/a> Thursday that \u201csmoky skies are again expected today, which will reduce air quality\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ed Markey, the Massachusetts senator, said<\/a> that the smoke is \u201cdarkening skies and getting in our lungs across the state\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a record El Ni\u00f1o forecast for this year, we are looking at more wildfire smoke days ahead,\u201d he added. \u201cThe climate crisis is here and it does not stop at our borders. Stay safe, Massachusetts<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Washington DC, weather officials told residents <\/a>to \u201cexpect more Canadian wildfire smoke to overspread the area leading to a camp fire smell in the air & some visibility reductions overnight-Friday\u201d.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, forecasters warned that smoky conditions were expected to persist into Friday and potentially into the weekend. In Virginia, forecasters said<\/a> on Thursday that \u201cadditional waves of smoke from Ontario, Canada, wildfires will push south into the area through Friday\u201d, which will create \u201chazy conditions with diminished air quality\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Michigan, smoke is expected to continue through Friday,<\/a> and perhaps linger across parts of the area into Saturday, and Ohio is also expected to see smoky conditions continue through Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Indiana, weather officials said<\/a> that \u201cthe Great Lakes region currently has some of the worst air quality in the world right now due to wildfire smoke\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smoke from wildfires burning in south-central Canada and parts of Minnesota is spreading across the US, prompting air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-767089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}