CHICAGO (WLS) — An Air Quality Alert remains in effect for the Chicago area Friday due to smoke from Canadian wildfires.<\/p>\n
The alert is in effect until midnight Friday.<\/p>\n
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n Air quality remained in the hazardous category for the Chicago area Friday morning.<\/p>\n ABC7 Accuweather Meteorologist Tracy Butler said the worst of the air quality will be in the morning hours and conditions could improve in the afternoon hours.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO: Tracking air quality across the Chicago area<\/a><\/p>\n Butler said some rain and storms in the afternoon and evening and it is possible the rain mixes with the smoke to leave behind a sludge.<\/p>\n Butler said the air quality should be better on Saturday, but smoky skies could return on Sunday.<\/p>\n Smoke from Canadian wildfires is seen in downtown Chicago.<\/p>\n The air is unhealthy for anyone to breathe.<\/p>\n The smoke and haze blanketing the Chicago area is causing low visibility and could create some delays here at O’Hare Airport.<\/p>\n The unhealthy conditions are not only disrupting travel, but also interrupting many outdoor activities.<\/p>\n The pollution forced several major events in the city to be rescheduled, including a Millennium Park summer music series performance and the Chicago Fire match at Soldier Field.<\/p>\n The Chicago Park District officially closed all beaches and outdoor pools designating only indoor ones stay open. They also moved all-day camps inside.<\/p>\n Health experts said the air is unhealthy for everyone to breathe and are encouraging people to avoid or limit time outdoors until the air quality gets better.<\/p>\n “If you can see it, and you can smell it, you’re breathing it in…so recommendations right now: if you don’t have to go out, then stay home,” Dr. Juanita Mora of the American Lung Association, said.<\/p>\n Doctors also recommend that people stay hydrated, which can help the respiratory system in these smoky conditions.<\/p>\n Cook County Radar<\/a> | DuPage County Radar<\/a> | Will County Radar<\/a> | Lake County Radar (IL)<\/a> | Kane County Radar<\/a> | Northwest Indiana Radar<\/a> Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — An Air Quality Alert remains in effect for the Chicago area Friday due to smoke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[328006,6395,328004,23,328005,328002,328003,302417,148008,236572,302766,237078,20641,51901,270642,30596,3,208144,328000,328001,21,19,22,20,25,24,237077,327999,459,71641],"class_list":["post-768088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-328006","tag-air-quality","tag-air-quality-chicago","tag-america","tag-chicago-air-quality","tag-chicago-heat","tag-chicago-heat-index-today","tag-chicago-severe-weather","tag-chicago-weather","tag-chicago-weather-forecast","tag-chicago-weather-hourly","tag-chicago-weather-radar","tag-excessive-heat","tag-heat-advisory","tag-heat-index","tag-heat-wave","tag-news","tag-noah-kahan","tag-noah-kahan-chicago","tag-noah-kahan-wrigley","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-weather-chicago","tag-weather-this-week","tag-weather-today","tag-weather-tomorrow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768088","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=768088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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