After about a week of poor air quality in the Great Lakes region, Northwest Indiana and Illinois residents have to wait a little longer for a reprieve.
“It’s still a little unhealthy out there, but not as bad as it was last week through the second half of the week,” said Scott Baker, observation program leader with the National Weather Service’s Chicago office. “It possibly might linger into the day tomorrow. We’ll have to see how the wind sets up for the day tomorrow, if it does keep some of that overhead or if it does push out of Northeast Illinois and Northwest Indiana.”
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management called another Air Quality Action Day for Northwest Indiana Monday, making it more than a week of poor air quality in the region. Fine particulate matter levels are expected to be in the unhealthy range for Northwest, North Central and Northeast Indiana, according to the IDEM alert.
For Western, West Central, Central, East Central, Southwest and Southeast Indiana, fine particulate matter levels are forecasted to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sensitive groups are defined as people with heart or lung diseases, those with diabetes, older adults and children.
High pressure throughout Monday will recirculate Canadian wildfire smoke throughout most of the state, according to IDEM. Light winds and predicted flow will also produce high fine particulate matter readings, which have led to poor air quality.
“Their forecast is getting better for the day tomorrow,” Baker said. “That’s due to the change in winds and maybe seeing some rain showers as we go through the night that will help kind of push that smoke down to the ground level.”
According to AirNow, on a 500-point scale, Northwest Indiana’s was 116 at about noon Monday. The government organization expects Tuesday’s to be moderate, which is in the 50 to 100-point range.
AirNow recommends people reduce their outside exposure, choose less strenuous activities, shorten their active time outdoors and be active outside when air quality is improved.
Baker recommends people stay inside if they can, and if they go outside and are in a sensitive group, he recommends wearing a N95 mask.
“Those tend to help out more with filtering the particles out better rather than just a cloth mask or simple, light medical mask,” Baker said.
Baker couldn’t comment on the number of Canadian wildfires Monday. According to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, 15 new wildfires were reported, with 809 total.
According to the system, 100 active fires are out of control, including in Ontario near its border with Minnesota.
According to Post-Tribune archives, IDEM issues Air Quality Action Days when fine particulate matter or ozone levels will be high throughout the day. The department announced at the beginning of May that it will issue local Air Quality Advisories when short-term fine particulate matter levels increase overnight or in the early morning.
According to the baiduhai, the Illinois EPA extended an air quality alert for Monday in Northern and Central Illinois. On Sunday, Chicago had the worst air of the U.S. major cities and fifth-worst in the world.
The smoke was expected to clear by Monday evening, the Tribune reported.
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