Smoke from hundreds of miles away will blanket parts of the U.S. already dealing with sweltering heat.
The smoke is from wildfires in Minnesota and Ontario, Canada, The Washington Post reported.
The haze is expected to cause unhealthy air quality for parts of the Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic through the rest of the week.
“It is recommended that, when possible, you avoid strenuous outdoor activities, especially those with heart disease and respiratory conditions like asthma,” the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said on Wednesday, according to the Post.
The smoke is expected to travel south and east, stretching from the Washington, D.C., area to Boston by Thursday morning, and stick around through Friday.
There are about a dozen large wildfires in Ontario, with several out-of-control blazes in western Ontario, with one larger than 130,000 acres. There are also two in Minnesota, each burning between 13,500 and 14,500 acres, along with more than a dozen others, none of which have been brought under control, according to The New York Times.
New York City Emergency Management doesn’t believe the smoke will be as bad as it was during a similar event in 2023, but this year’s smoke happens during a time of high heat, creating simultaneous “environmental health challenges,” the agency said, according to the Post.
The New York Times reported that tens of millions of people were under heat warnings from the Dakotas to New England.
With the one-two-punch, meteorologist Tyler Hasenstein with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, Minnesota, said, “Those two things coinciding with each other is not good from a health perspective,” The Associated Press reported.
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