Canadian wildfire smoke could once again impact Chicago area

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Canadian wildfire smoke is prompting health warnings in Illinois.

For the second consecutive year, smoke is drifting over the border and impacting the U.S., triggering air quality alerts in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

As Kim Biggs from the Illinois EPA explains, the wind direction may result in you noticing it here as well.

“We’re expecting anything in the northern part of the state,” Biggs said. “We’re looking kind of maybe Bloomington, Peoria, all the way into Chicago, Rockford.”

There were 200 fires burning in Canada by mid-May last year, compared with 90 fires as of this Sunday, said Dave Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, a government environmental protection agency.

The chances of more wildfires this summer appear high. Lightning strikes could trigger fires that quickly spread in forests suffering intense drought in northeastern British Columbia, northwestern Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories, according the Canadian National Wildland Fire Situation report.

“Most important, we want residents, especially those who are sensitive to air quality issues, to monitor the more frequent hourly readings through airnow.gov,” Biggs adds.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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