Wildfire smoke blankets Midwest, parts of Northeast

What happened

Canadian wildfires have sent “massive plumes” of smoke “pouring over the border” into the U.S., CNN said. The combination of wildfires in Ontario and a “heat dome in the central U.S. spells smoky trouble,” with dangerous air quality for “more than 120 million people in the Midwest and Northeast.”

Who said what

In cities including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis and Toronto, air quality readings “surged to levels so dangerous” that one public health expert warned “nobody should spend time outside,” The New York Times said. Sensors across the upper Midwest on Thursday recorded the “worst air quality in North America,” with Chicago reportedly having the worst in the world.

The smoke “arrived in force,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Steven Freitag told The Associated Press. “It’s really pretty extreme levels.” And air in coastal cities like New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., was also at “unhealthy levels,” said the Times.

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What next?

The Midwest could “face weeks to months of continued smoke and flare-ups,” depending on wind patterns, said Brent Williams, the head of the University of Minnesota’s Soil, Water and Climate Department, to the AP. Republican lawmakers have meanwhile “threatened punitive action against Canada,” accusing its government of “mismanaging the wildfires,” said the Times. “I will be introducing a bill next week to sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) on X.