Canadian wildfires impact Wisconsin again, 6th air quality alert

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says you might want to spend less time outside as smoke from Canada’s historically bad wildfire season worsens our air quality.

MILWAUKEE - The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says you might want to spend less time outside as smoke from Canada’s historically bad wildfire season worsens our air quality.

There was lingering haze once again on Thursday, June 15.

DNR officials said the last time they issued such an air quality alert in spring was more than 10 years ago. Thursday's was the sixth of the season.

"It’s abnormal," said Sam Cady, golfer. "It’s weird that it’s so cold and so windy in this part of June. If you’re looking at like, the US Bank, those towers on the east side downtown, they look a little foggy up top."

The smoke from one of Canada's worst wildfire seasons was responsible for the haze.

"It’s kind of crazy it travels that far and it’s so influential," said Anthony Otero.

While the East Coast saw very visible signs of worsened air quality, it has impacted Wisconsin, too.

"That smoke can travel hundreds or thousands of miles with the winds," said Craig Czarnecki.

It led the DNR to issue an air quality advisory for most of the state Thursday – including all of southeast Wisconsin.

"We just wanted to catch some fresh air," said Naomi Smith. "My daughter who normally has respiratory issues, she’s feeling it just a little bit."

According to the DNR, sensitive groups such as children, older adults and people with heart or lung disease should consider taking it easy and spend less time outdoors.

"Definitely want to watch for things like coughing or shortness of breath," said Czarnecki.

With wildfires happening much earlier in the year than usual, Czarnecki said they had to issue an unusual amount of these alerts.

"Prior to this year, we have not had a spring PM2.5 advisory since 2011, so it would have been over a decade since we’ve had an advisory like this in the spring," said Czarnecki.

"I’ll be glad when it’s over," said Smith.

New York

The air quality advisory ends at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning, but the DNR says more are expected.

Resources from the DNR

Get current air quality conditions from the statewide air monitoring network - Wisconsin Data Map - https://airquality.wi.gov/home/map
Users can download the free WisconsinAQM mobile app to receive air quality updates from anywhere using their mobile device. Download in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
Sign up to receive air quality advisory notices to your email or via text - https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WIDNR/subscriber/new?topic_id=WIDNR_323
The EPA has recently started utilizing corrected data from Air Quality sensors to fill in the spatial gaps between regulatory air monitors. EPA’s airnow.gov webmap incorporates the corrected purple air data from across the country into its fire and smoke map which can be found here: https://fire.airnow.gov/