MINNEAPOLIS — There may be snow on the ground now, but state health and environmental officials are still investigating data from the 2023 Summer of Smoke and its impact on our air quality.
“This year we had days of orange, and then it would be red and then orange again,” Matt Taraldsen, supervisory meteorologist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, told WCCO. “This year we also had the smoke that would leave some residue behind and produce ozone after smoke intrusion.”
SUMMER OF TOBACCO: Protect yourself and your loved ones from fire pollution
Tobacco, of course, was a result of a Canadian fire season recordwhere about 6,000 individual fires have burned an area that, in total, is larger than Florida.
In 2023, the majority of days in Minnesota recorded AQI scores above normal, including 49 that were amber or higher.
WCCO
“It's definitely something to watch, and if we continue to have these fire events year after year, that could definitely reverse those trends,” Taraldsen added.
New research suggests that record amounts of smoke are either reversing or delaying substantial gains across the country in reducing air pollution.
In Canada, authorities are hoping for increased rainfall this winter and beyond to reduce the risk of a repeat in 2024.
SUMMER OF TOBACCO: Minnesotans are helping keep Canada's wildfires at bay
“Preparing for and responding to wildfires or developing communities to be resilient to wildfires is one thing, but stopping the fire is a whole other issue that probably doesn't have an answer,” said Kim Connors, Executive Director of Canadian Forest Fire Centre. WCCO News. “How do we make sure that communities and citizens understand what this all means.”
Jonah Kaplan
