Canadian wildfire smoke keeps air quality unhealthy across parts of Chicagoland

[00:00:00]If you looked at the skyline of Chicago, you can see it. That wildfire smoke blanketing some of our area.

[00:00:05]>> Right, it's hard to see the skyline. It was for me when I drove in early this morning. The EPA has put out another air quality alert, which means we're going to be breathing in unhealthy air most of the day.

[00:00:15]>> Yeah, we are bringing you team coverage.

[00:00:16]Jamie Rutter is standing by tracking the storms that could end up blowing some of this out of our area. But first, we want to go live to say Quan to tell us more about the air quality, say.

[00:00:29]>> Hey, good morning, ladies.

[00:00:30]>> So, we're here in Round Lake Beach, not far from the Illinois-Wisconsin border, where that wildfire smoke from Canada is still lingering in the air this morning.

[00:00:38]So much so that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has now extended its air quality alert into and through this evening. Now, at last check, that air quality index here at Round Lake Beach was 123, considered to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. That includes children and older adults. So, that means if you or your loved ones have any respiratory issues, like asthma or lung or heart conditions, you are encouraged to stay inside and limit your time outdoors. If you need to be outside and you are in that sensitive category, you should be using an N95 or a KN95 mask to block those particles from entering your lungs. Now, according to IQAir, which ranks cities globally based on poor air quality, Chicago had the second worst air quality in the world as of earlier this morning. Mind you, Chicago was in that number one spot just a few days ago when the air in the city was considered hazardous. So, really this is an improvement compared to late last week. The wildfires in Canada, however, are seemingly only getting worse. Officials there say nearly 1,000 active fires are currently burning and over 7 million acres have been burned so far in the country. Now, we did see plenty of people masking up in the city last week when the air was considered hazardous, but once again, experts are still recommending that you do so, especially if you are considered to be in that sensitive category. Ladies, I'll toss it back to you for now.

[00:01:59]>> All right, say, thank you so much for that update. We want to go to JD Rudd now, who also can tell us a little bit more about the smoke. I know some storms are on the way, so maybe that will help.

[00:02:09]I got to ask you this, JD, because you know, a lot of people are skeptical.

[00:02:12]When you get online, people are like, "Is this really wildfire smoke? What's happening? Why now? Why aren't we seeing this on a consistent basis?" What would be your reply to that?

[00:02:21]>> the unique setup of all this because these these fires and these storms just got going. These These big wildfires in portions of Canada and the upper-level wind flow was just right to pull this stuff in here. The unique thing that we had last week that got us on Thursday was how still the air was. There wasn't much movement at all, so it allowed all that to kind of just drift down and sit on top of us. Worst air quality we've ever had by a long shot all across Chicagoland.

[00:02:47]>> I knew you'd know the answer.

[00:02:48]>> Well, but I I I guess more to Tia's point, though, how come this is such a rare occurrence? Cuz we often get that cool Canadian Well, I guess that's in the winter time. There probably are fewer wildfires then. But we often get the Canadian air flow.

[00:03:00]>> Yeah. This one was again, these the stillness of the air across all the levels of the atmosphere and those wildfires just getting going. The smoke was so thick. You know, when you first kindle up a fire, there's a whole big bunch of smoke that comes out. This is almost that perfect storm of drawing things in at the right time, quote unquote, and it plopped it right down here on top of us. Now, one of the other things that I also believe is this came in from the northeast right across Lake Michigan. As you know, there is nothing sitting on Lake Michigan, nothing to slow this down, no trees to absorb it, nothing else like that. So, it was like a pipeline right here into our area.

[00:03:34]>> Okay. Well, I'm happy you broke that down. Talk about these storms.

[00:03:37]>> Chance for storms later on today, yes, but as Mike was telling you this morning, there are some caveats here.

[00:03:43]There are some variables where things are already breaking down across portions of Minnesota into Iowa. This first round may not make it here, but later on today, I'll say after 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, there could be a redevelopment out of Wisconsin rolls in.

[00:03:56]If we get the rain, if we get the thunder, that could help cleanse the air a little bit, but we're not done for the season, probably not done for the week with wildfire smoke.

[00:04:04]>> All right, JD, thank you.

[00:04:05]Yeah.