Headline Roundup • May 13th, 2024
Canada Wildfire Smoke Prompts Air Quality Warnings in Northern US
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Some northern U.S. states saw air quality alerts on Monday, as smoke blew in from wildfires in western Canada.
The Details: Hundreds of fires have sprung up across western Canada, echoing 2023’s fires, which burned more than 45 million acres. Authorities told several communities in British Columbia to evacuate over the weekend. In the U.S., drifting smoke prompted air quality alerts in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. North Dakota, South Dakota, and northern Michigan also saw poor air quality, according to government data.
How the Media Covered It: Some coverage used more sensational language than others; Fox News (Right bias) said the smoke “chokes Minneapolis with worst air quality in America,” and CNN (Lean Left bias) described the wildfires as “explosive” and exhibiting “extreme fire behavior.” While articles from the left were more likely to note a connection to climate change, these notes tended to be brief; The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) wrote, “Human-caused climate change intensifies heat, droughts and fire intensity,” adding that dry land is “more combustible.”
Check out Canada's interactive fire map and the U.S. AirNow interactive air quality map.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Jason Franson/AP
Wildfires in Canada have roared back to life, sending harmful smoke into the northern United States — an unwelcome reminder of last summer’s historic fire season that also repeatedly sent plumes of noxious haze southward.
Almost a year to the date from the explosive start to the 2023 fire season, hundreds of fires have erupted in Canada, including a dozen major and out-of-control blazes. At least 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of land have burned so far, much of it in recent days.
Smoke from the blazes has led to air quality alerts for much of Alberta...
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Canada's wildfire season has erupted as dozens of blazes burn in the country's western provinces, and smoke from those fires is choking the skies over the Upper Midwest early this week.
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul in Minnesota claimed the worst air quality in America on Monday after winds carried the smoke southeastward into the northern U.S.
Hazy skies were first seen Sunday over parts of northern Minnesota before spreading farther south into the Twin Cities overnight.
The air quality index (AQI) in Minneapolis reached the "unhealthy" category Sunday night and has remained there through Monday.
Central and northern Wisconsin are under an air quality advisory due to Canadian wildfire smoke, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan.
In those portions of the state, people can see smoke in the sky, and in some areas, on ground level, said Mark Gehring, NWS meteorologist.
Visibilities are ranging from 4 to 7 miles in parts of west central and northern Wisconsin, as well as southern Minnesota, Gehring said.
"That's from the smoke from the Canadian fires that flared back up now that spring has come," he said....
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