Michigan is expected to see some relief from wildfire smoke later this week.
Experts say the remaining smoke will likely clear out over the next 48 hours.
Areas with wildfires in northern Minnesota and parts of Canada were hit with rain on Sunday, and are expected to get rain on Monday as well.
Jim Haywood is a Senior Meteorologist with Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
He said the first part of this week looks pretty good, but he noted that monitoring systems can only predict air quality conditions 48 hours in advance.
“Once we get past today, tomorrow we’re not seeing any alerts being issued anywhere in the state. Wednesday looks actually pretty clean. We’re a little bit worried about the end of the week. We get under a high pressure system again, so things will dry out again, and obviously the drier it gets, the more potential that we have for fire and more smoke,” said Haywood.
Haywood said over the past week, Marquette experienced record breaking air quality levels.
“Marquette has been just running absolutely record breaking numbers for days now. Our AQI chart goes from 0-500, and we were seeing numbers up there, the AQI index, over 1,000,” said Haywood
An Air Quality Alert remains in place over Michigan on Monday. The air quality has the potential to reach the level considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as individuals with asthma, respiratory issues, or heart conditions.
“Today, we still do have a statewide alert but it's the lowest level or alert that we issue, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups. So for most people, today probably is not going to be an issue,” said Haywood.
While conditions are gradually improving, he noted there is a chance they may change as quickly as they came on.
“Pay attention. Certainly self awareness is huge out there. If you’re looking outside, and you’re seeing that it’s hazy, and you go out and you can smell it, certainly you need to be somewhat concerned,” said Haywood.
