Health & Fitness
Record Wildfire Season Impacting Air Quality Trends In Midwest, New Study Shows
The smoke was the result of a record wildfire season in Canada where roughly 6,000 individual fires torched an area larger than Florida.
January 9, 2024
MINNEAPOLIS — There may be snow on the ground now but state health and environmental officials continue to dig into the data from 2023's Summer of Smoke and its impact on our air quality.
Find out what's happening in Across Minnesotafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"This year we had days of orange, and then it would be red, and then days of orange again," Matt Taraldsen, a supervisory meteorologist at Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, explained to WCCO. "This year we also had the smoke that would leave just a little bit of residual behind and would produce ozone following a smoke intrusion."
The smoke, of course, was the result of a record wildfire season in Canada, where roughly 6,000 individual fires torched an area that combined is larger than Florida.
Find out what's happening in Across Minnesotafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Minnesota's Air Quality Index (AQI) in 2022 vs. 2023/WCCO
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