Minnesota could experience another summer of smoke, poor air quality
MINNEAPOLIS — Although the weather has been beautiful lately, last year's summer of smoke — which blanketed our skyline in a haze — is still on some minds.
"I'd go out for walks like we are today and it was really difficult, and I couldn't go very far," Kit Piltingsrud said.
Piltingsrud is on the board of directors for a YMCA and has been wondering about campers' safety this summer.
"Wildfires and air quality is something that's on our mind," Piltingsrud said. "And so how can we keep our kids safe when we're taking them up into the Boundary Waters and doing those kinds of things is something that we're having discussions about."
Last year, 22 air quality alerts were issued for Minnesota — 13 of them were orange, which means bad for people with pre-existing conditions. Nine were red — bad for everyone. Those 22 alerts spanned 52 days.
Since then, state leaders have been preparing for more.
"We put in about $6 million in aviation infrastructure to fight our own wildfires here at home," Gov. Tim Walz said. "Because of changing climate, the expectations and the forecasts are, we're going to see more of this."
"Although we're forecasting an above-average season, we're not forecasting the same type of severity as 2023," said Matt Taraldsen with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Forecasters say El Nino also had a role in last year's summer of smoke — and rain could help prevent another. However, the WCCO NEXT Weather team isn't optimistic.
"We're likely going to be facing drought conditions again," meteorologist Chris Shaffer said. "I'm so happy we've been gaining ground on it locally, but across Canada, it's still bone dry. So if a wildfire starts, it spreads quickly and that plume of smoke quickly spreads all the way to our backyards."
The EPA tweaked the formula for how they measure the air quality index. It's all very scientific, but the important thing is that the bar has been lowered for moderate, or yellow, air quality days.
Don't expect to get more air quality alerts on your phone though. Yellow days don't require a public notice, they're just a sign that things are trending in the wrong direction.