Planet Detroit on LinkedIn: Canadian wildfire smoke arrives in Michigan; air quality in… (2024)

FAQs

Is Michigan getting smoke from Canada? ›

“The front came through — it kind of just dragged the smoke down to us in the Midwest, which is what we typically saw last year, too,” said Alec Kownacki, a meteorologist with Michigan's Air Quality Division. There were no alerts in northern Michigan, but the region did see some haze.

Mike Flannigan, the B.C. Innovation Research Chair in predictive services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University, says climate change is the driving force behind increasing Western Canada wildfires. “Some people won't like this, but it's the role of climate change,” he says.

Use fans and air conditioning to stay cool. If you cannot stay cool, seek shelter elsewhere. Reduce the smoke that enters your home. If you have an HVAC system with a fresh air intake, set the system to recirculate mode, or close the outdoor intake damper.

In older buildings smoky air can seep inside leaky windows and doors, bringing harmful particles into the home. We talked to experts about how to keep dangerous wildfire smoke outside your home.

The wildfires spread over the past week. Most of the fires are in British Columbia and Alberta. The fires are affecting the air quality of Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. The smoke can be dangerous because it contains a mixture of hazardous gases and solid particles smaller than a human hair.

Where smoke is the thickest and reaching the surface, reduced visibilities, and a campfire smell may be evident at times.

Typically, nearly half of all wildfires in Canada are caused by lightning strikes, but that can vary from region to region and from month to month.

“We found drought was the strongest influence to the occurrence of nighttime burning. We also found that the fires with overnight burning, about one-third start burning the day that fire ignited. So eventually they became big fires and about half start burning overnight within two days,” Wang said.

The 2024 wildfire season is underway, and although AccuWeather meteorologists are not expecting a record-shattering season, it may still bring air quality risks similar to what was experienced last year across the continent.

Dozens of large wildfires are burning, mostly in British Columbia and Alberta provinces. The toxic smoke from these massive wildfires has been released into the air and carried into the northern U.S., causing poor air quality in parts of the Midwest.

Does AC help with wildfire smoke? ›

Do not run your home ventilation (bath vents, kitchen vent, etc.) because it brings the outdoor air into your home. Run your air conditioner/heat pump if you have one. It's safe to use during wildfires and can help improve your home's indoor air quality.

Yes, you can run your AC when air quality is bad, as it is currently in much of the United States due to the wildfire smoke from Canada — but only do so if it's recirculating inside air, which means that it's not pulling air in from the outdoors, Dr.

Dr. Brian Christman, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University told Nexstar's WJW that running the air conditioning is fine, so long as the right settings are used. Most air conditioners operate by cooling the air inside the house and recirculating it, not pulling in air from outside.

The best way to prevent breathing harmful particles in wildfire smoke is to stay indoors. When air quality reaches dangerous levels due to wildfire smoke, the most effective way to reduce exposure and avoid health effects of smoke is to stay indoors with windows and doors closed.

Seeing hazy or smoky skies? Smoke from wildfires in far western North America will continue to drift across the region this weekend. At this time, it appears the smoke will stay aloft and not mix down to the surface over Upper Michigan this weekend.

According to Pastelok, the fires could keep burning until September or October.

A lull in fire behavior and favorable weather conditions around Fort Nelson should help firefighters battle the blaze, the officials added. Fires across Canada impacted air quality early Wednesday in eight U.S. states: the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

At the most northern part of the I-75 in Michigan you will find the Historic Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, joining together Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, better known as the “Twin Saults”. Coming to Canada doesn't have to be complicated.