MPCA reassures residents regarding wildfire smoke concerns

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is currently following the trends of how the wildfire smoke is impacting residents. When it comes to Air Quality Index, there are several different color zones indicating how severe the conditions are. The MPCA reassures residents regarding the wildfires that most of Minnesota is in orange for the time being. Although this does mean the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups like those with Asthma, Pregnant women, children, etc.

Meanwhile there are several areas in the red zone for Air Quality Index, which means its dangerous for everyone. David Brown, the Air Quality Meteorologist for the MPCA reassures residents regarding the wildfires that the smoke levels depend on the weather patterns. “It’s possible that they could continue going throughout the summer. New ones could start as well.” Brown said. “The outlooks for fire conditions up there continue to be very poor throughout the summer. And so it’s possible we may see waves of smoke like this on and off throughout the summer. All kind of depends on weather patterns.”

However, the MPCA reassures residents regarding wildfires, the air quality will not be as dangerous compared to the wildfires and smoke from the Summer of 2021. “The smoke from these fires that we saw move across North Dakota yesterday and moving into the state this morning is some of the worst smoke that we have probably measured or observed in this region of the country.” Brown said. “However, it’s pretty unclear at this point if we’ll continue to see really heavy waves of smoke like that from this fire. Not likely to be as bad as the summer of 2021, because those fires were located pretty close to the state of Minnesota, where these ones are a considerable distance further away to the northwest.”

Experts suggest that you limit your time outdoors, if you can. And take frequent breaks, if you must be outside. And this could be a reoccurring problem, all summer.

For more information about the current smoke conditions and air quality you can look here. For other other information about the wildfire smoke you can look here.