Air quality warnings remain in place across US as wildfire smoke continues to swathe country

Warnings of dangerous conditions are expected to remain in place on Saturday across swathes of the US, amid uncertainty about where the heavy wildfire smoke swirling from the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of Minnesota will head next.

Some parts of the US mid-Atlantic and north-east regions will continue to endure poor air quality until Saturday afternoon, where there is a high chance of thunderstorms, which could bring some reprieve from the poor air but come with other risks like flash flooding and high winds. Meanwhile, parts of the midwest and Great Lakes regions will continue to see dangerous air quality.

The smoke also leaves questions swirling about the air quality in New Jersey, where the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina will take place in East Rutherford on Sunday. However, winds continue pushing the wildfire smoke east in the US, so conditions should be more improved on match day on Saturday.

But while there may be pockets of relief at times, such as this weekend, the smoky conditions won’t be gone anytime soon as the fires continue to burn largely unchecked, Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service based in Maryland, told the Associated Press.

Out-of-control wildfires continue to burn in Ontario as well as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which US officials have closed as they fight to put out the blazes.

For much of the past week, tens of millions of people across Canada and the US have been breathing in unhealthy air, which has triggered everything from eye irritation to the temporary shuttering of some businesses to the cancellation of many outdoor events. Flames in northern Ontario have destroyed the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation community, and almost a dozen other communities have been evacuated or were being evacuated.

On Friday, communities in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and the US north-east, including Detroit and Washington DC, registered some of the worst air quality in the world, according to IQAir, an air quality monitoring website, with skies a hazy orange hue for much of the day.

People, particularly those with heart or lung disease, older adults, pregnant women and children, were urged to limit or avoid going outside until air quality improved. Officials in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other north-eastern states also distributed free K95 face masks for people to wear if they had to go outside.

Long-term exposure to smoky conditions can complicate existing health problems and lead to chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and premature death.

Wildfire smoke is linked to tens of thousands of deaths a year, and scientists estimate that the human-driven climate crisis is responsible for a growing share of them.