You don't need us to tell you that the sky is hazy with smoke, and it smells like you're standing in the middle of a campfire across most of Minnesota on Thursday. It's an unprecedented amount of air pollution with an alert issued all across Minnesota.
The Twin Cities are now covered in a dense layer of smoke that swept in overnight from wildfires in northern Minnesota and Canada.
According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, these conditions mark the worst air quality ever recorded in the Twin Cities. And while cooler temperatures are expected due to the smoky cover, people are being encouraged to stay indoors and avoid outdoor activity.
If you have to go outside, health experts are recommending to wear an N95 mask which can filter out the harmful particulate matter in our air.
All of this comes as wildfires are raging across the Arrowhead portion of Minnesota and southern Ontario.
The MPCA alert puts the Twin Cities now in the hazardous "maroon" Air Quality Index category, which is the most harmful level.
"Obviously you can smell it and there's even some portions of central and northern parts of the state where they had small particulates, actually people were reporting ash fall from it," National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Calderone said. "In some parts, obviously you can see it, you can smell it. It may be very sensitive to people's respiratory systems."
The smoke is expected to be hanging around until Friday with health experts advising some to start using masks. Dr. Sarah Lacher is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medial School in Duluth.
"We have such mass hesitancy right now, that those KN95 masks, they should filter out the PM 2.5 particles, which is one of the more hazardous fractions of wildfire smoke," Lacher explains.
She also says if you can avoid spending too much time outdoors, and use an air purifier in your home.
The good news is the smoke is keeping us a bit cooler. All but the urban heat island areas of the Twin Cities have been downgraded to a Heat Advisory through Thursday, as wildfire smoke has also knocked down temperatures Thursday. Overnight temps will be hotter in the Cities, prolonging the heat impacts.
"Outside of that, we're not expecting the heat to be as much of a factor," Calderone adds. "It's going to basically just fall short of where we put out even a heat advisory to be issued. That's not to say that it's not going to be an issue. It's still going to be where if you're going to be outside, stay hydrated, take breaks."
Things begin to change back on Friday, where the wind shifts helping clear the smoke. But that also means the temps will climb back up with the Heat Index approaching 100 again.
AIR QUALITY ALERT REMAINS IN EFFECT
* WHAT...The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued an Air Quality Alert for fine particles pollution. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is expected to reach the Maroon or Hazardous category.
* WHERE...Central Minnesota including the Twin Cities.
* WHEN...Until 11 AM CDT Friday.
* IMPACTS...Everyone can be affected by wildfire smoke in these concentrations. Minor trace amounts of ashfall are likely and have been reported across Minnesota.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS... Dense smoke is causing observed Hazardous/Maroon conditions across central Minnesota. Smoke concentrations will gradually decrease through Friday, but the air quality will remain in the Hazardous/Maroon to Unhealthy For All/Red categories through that time in the alert area before improving Friday morning.
