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Tens of millions of Americans are enduring another day of smoky skies, irritated eyes and bad air quality, as Canadian wildfire smoke spread again over huge swathes of the US, affecting about ۱۰۹ million people across the midwest, mid-Atlantic and north-east.
The pungent wildfire blanketed cities such as Chicago and Detroit, where residents on Friday were warned to stay indoors and reduce activity levels after the air quality index reached a “hazardous” ۳۶۱, according to the government website AirNow.
The smoke drifted into Baltimore and Washington DC overnight, creating very unhealthy air quality with index values of ۲۸۱ and ۲۴۷, respectively, as of ۶am eastern time. In New York City, where smoke has blanketed the city since Tuesday, air quality stood at an “unhealthy” ۱۸۴ early Friday. It later improved to ۱۲۴, a reading considered “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”.
Philadelphia and Cleveland had readings considered “very unhealthy” at about ۲۶۰. Other parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin also recorded readings in the “hazardous” range.
Overall, the global air quality index showed pollution in five major North American cities at higher levels than Kinshasa or Nairobi in Africa – the next cities on the list. Nasa’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, or Firms, shows pockets of Canadian wildfires reaching deep into the Northwest Territories.
In Michigan, the state’s department of environment, Great Lakes and energy recommended closing windows, minimizing the opening of doors and using HVAC systems rated Merv-۱۳ or higher.
“If you must be outdoors for short periods of time, an N۹۵ or P۱۰۰ respirator marked with NIOSH is recommended,” that alert said.
But some cities in the north-east and New England are expected to get relief from smoky skies on Friday as stronger winds from Quebec – not from the wildfire zone in western Ontario – blow the smoke out.
“There has been a clear intensification in wildfire activity for Canada over the past few weeks. Smoke from major fires – particularly in Ontario – [is] already having severe air quality impacts across cities in the Great Lakes region and the north-eastern United States,” said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
“Our forecasts show the smoke continuing to move eastwards across the North Atlantic, and potentially towards Europe, highlighting the scale of wildfire pollution and how it can travel thousands of kilometers across borders and impact air quality in places far beyond the fires themselves,” he added.
Organizers of the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be watching the smoke patterns carefully: smoke currently over the mid-Atlantic is expected to blow back up into the north-east.
But an approaching storm system from the west, bringing severe thunderstorms, could interact with the smoke, creating worse conditions as rain drags smoky air from higher up in the atmosphere down to the ground.
When that storm passes late on Saturday, air quality is likely to improve in time for a ۳pm Sunday kick-off. But authorities have said they are “monitoring” whether smoke plumes will affect the game, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
Canada’s largest fire, near Ontario’s remote Wabakimi provincial park, is reported to be spread across ۷۸۷,۸۰۲ acres (۳۱۸,۸۱۲ hectares) by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. It is among ۱۹۴ out-of-control and large fires that were burning as of Thursday.
Parrington said smoke plumes from the large-scale wildfires in Canada’s Northwest Territories had reached the Arctic Ocean as well as across other parts of the country.
Nearly ۶m acres are estimated to have burned, less than a quarter of land consumed by blazes when Canadian wildfire smoke last blanketed the US in ۲۰۲۳. Fires in northern Minnesota have burned more than ۶۳,۰۰۰ acres.
In the west, wildfires in Oregon, Washington and Idaho have also been reported.
“The wildfire situation across North America just got worse. Tens of thousands of lightning strikes across the Pacific Northwest [have] ignited dozens of new wildfires across Oregon and Washington,” wrote forecaster Colin McCarthy on Thursday evening.
Smoke plumes from wildfires risk reversing gains made from reductions in other sources pollution, according to a ۲۰۲۵ study by Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Researchers estimated that smoke from wildfires and prescribed burns caused $۲۰۰bn in health damages in ۲۰۱۷, and were associated with ۲۰,۰۰۰ premature deaths.
“Many studies have found that fire smoke, like other air pollutants, is associated with increased morbidity and mortality risk,” said co-author Nicholas Muller, professor of economics, engineering, and public policy.
At the other end of the US, heavy rainfall across south and central Texas, including Texas Hill Country, an area hit by catastrophic flash flooding last year, has exceeded ۲۰ inches in some places since Monday. The Guadalupe River near Comfort in Kerr county crested at ۳۷ feet above flood stage.
AccuWeather’s Global Weather Center put a preliminary estimate of damage and economic loss at $۱۱bn to $۱۳bn. The extreme rainfall is consistent with findings from the company’s climate research unit that has found rainfall in amounts greater than ۴in in a ۲۴-hour period has actually increased by ۷۰% since ۱۹۹۵.
AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist, Jonathan Porter, said in an email that the common description of an extreme rainfall event as a “۱-in-۱,۰۰۰-year rain event” is that it relies on probabilities.
“In a warming climate, those historical probabilities are changing, meaning these extreme rainfall events can occur more frequently than the statistics from the past would suggest,” Porter said.
