Unhealthy Air In Worcester County: Advisory Issued For At-Risk Groups

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester County is one of five Massachusetts counties under an air quality advisory Tuesday due to wildfire smoke blowing in from Canada.

Tuesday's advisory warns that air quality will be unhealthy for sensitive groups like older people, people with respiratory problems and young children.

"Fine particle levels will continue to be influenced by western Canada wildfire surface smoke, especially in western and central areas of the State. An Air Quality Advisory is issued for Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, and Worcester counties," the state Department of Environmental Protection said in an advisory Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, an air monitoring station along Summer Street in the downtown Worcester area was registering an air quality index of 105, which is in the "unhealthy" range.

Along with drenching rainstorms, wildfire smoke has been a consistent feature this spring and summer in central Massachusetts due to an unprecedented wildfire season in Canada. There were almost 900 wildfires burning across Canada as of this week, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.