Heavy smoke continues to spread across the Great Lakes region into New England and as far south as Maryland, leading to unhealthy and even hazardous air quality in a number of states.
Extreme heat and dry conditions in Ontario, Canada, and northern Minnesota helped fuel wildfires earlier in the week. As of Friday, nearly 900 wildfires were actively burning in Canada, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. More than 180 are burning in Ontario alone.
Where temperatures have hit 100 degrees, the fires have continued on an “unprecedented run,” said Derek Mallia, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah. “You have a firehose of smoke coming right now.”
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