Smoke from burning wildfires in Canada is creating haze patches and raising air quality concerns throughout the Great Lakes region and parts of the central and eastern United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website AirNow.gov showed that parts of Illinois, southern Michigan and southern Wisconsin had the worst air quality in the United States. United on Tuesday afternoon, while Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee had air quality considered “very unhealthy.” “

Minnesota issued a record 23rd air quality alert, which will be in effect Tuesday through Wednesday evening across much of the state as smoky skies darken the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has issued a statewide air quality alert. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has also issued an air quality advisory for the state.

In Chicago, officials have urged young people, the elderly and residents with health issues to spend more time indoors.

“As you walked into the zoo…if you looked at the buildings around it, there was a kind of haze,” said Shelly Woinowski, who was visiting Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.

Some daycare centers in the Chicago metro area informed parents that their children would be indoors on Tuesday due to poor air quality, while a youth sports club announced that it had changed its activities to add more indoor time.

“As these dangerous conditions continue, the City will continue to provide updates and take prompt action to ensure vulnerable people have the resources they need to protect themselves and their families,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson in a statement.

In the Milwaukee metro area, Flight for Life Wisconsin Air Ambulance Service was unable to respond to a crash between a motorcycle and a pickup truck because the Federal Aviation Administration requires a visibility of 2 miles (3, 2 kilometres) and visibility was reduced to between 1.2 and 2.4 kilometers (0.7 and 1.5 miles) due to hazy skies, chief executive Leif Erickson said.

Fires in northern Quebec and a low-pressure system in the eastern Great Lakes are sending clouds of smoke into northern Michigan and southern Wisconsin and Chicago, said National Meteorologist Bryan Jackson. Weather Service.

Jackson added that a northerly wind will push the smoke further south into Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky later Tuesday and overnight.

Canada’s Interagency Wildfire Center reported on Monday that 76,129 square kilometers (29,393 square miles) of land, including forests, have burned in Canada since January 1. This number exceeds the previous record, set in 1989, of 75,596 square kilometers (29,187 square miles) according to the National Forestry Database.

Nationwide, there are currently 490 active fires, of which 255 are considered out of control.

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Ahmed reported in Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Corey Williams in Detroit and Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this report.