HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS

Smoke From Canadian Wildfires Triggers Air Quality Alerts in 20 States

The Midwest is getting the worst of it on Wednesday.

Millions of Americans in 20 states—especially in the Midwest and around the Great Lakes—are dealing with declining air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. The latest plume of harmful smoke has blanketed an area spanning from Iowa and Minnesota to western Pennsylvania, NBC News reported. Cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis are all under air quality alerts. Over the next several days, the noxious cloud is expected to migrate east, possibly reaching Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia on Thursday. The Canadian wildfires generating the smoke have raged for months, scorching millions of acres of forest, and aren’t expected to end anytime soon.