Millions in the country are facing bad weather. While some suffer from wildfire smoke in Canada, others face sweltering heat.
About 87 million people are at risk of poor air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires, and Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis are among the four worst-quality cities in the world, according to the IQAir.com tracking service.
On the other hand, about 69 million people face heat alerts, not only in the South and Southeast, but also the Midwest and California.
Alert for poor air quality
The Detroit, Michigan, area woke up Wednesday to some of the worst air quality in the United States, as smoke from Canada's wildfires settled over most of the Great Lakes region and unhealthy haze spread south to Missouri and Kentucky.
Smoke drifting from wildfires has sent blankets of haze down wide swaths of the country, pushing deep into southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and reaching parts of West Virginia.
Smoke fills the sky in Detroit reducing visibility Wednesday, June 28, 2023.Paul Sancya / AP
The Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow.gov site showed Detroit in the "dangerous" range and warned that "everyone should stay indoors and reduce activity levels." Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh have "very unhealthy" air. A wider circle of unsanitary air spread to St. Louis and Louisville.
The smoke is exacerbating air quality problems for poor and black communities, who are already more likely to live near polluting plants and in rental housing with mold and other triggers.
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Southwest Detroit is home to numerous refineries and manufacturing plants and has struggled with air pollution for decades. It's also one of the poorest parts of a mostly black city, which has an overall poverty rate of about 30%.
According to a 2022 report from the American Lung Association, the city's short-lived ozone and particulate pollution was one of the worst in the country.
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Darren Riley's own experiences being diagnosed with asthma in 2018, just a few years after moving to Detroit, and with poor air quality in parts of the city prompted him to start JustAir, which provides air pollution monitoring.
"Just because you were born in a certain zip code or born into a certain family with a certain skin color doesn't mean you should have an unequal opportunity," said Riley, who is black.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee County emergency medical services have seen an increase in calls from residents with respiratory problems, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Data from the Office of Emergency Management shows that a disproportionate number of calls for respiratory problems — 54.8% — have been for blacks in Milwaukee, according to the newspaper. Milwaukee County's population is 27.1% black.
[The Air Tastes Like Smoke: Canadian Fires Deteriorate Air Quality in Chicago and Detroit to Unprecedented Levels]
In Chicago, Illinois, Mayor Brandon Johnson urged young people, seniors and residents with health issues to spend more time indoors and promised "swift action to ensure vulnerable people have the resources they need to protect themselves and their families."
Minnesota issued the 23rd air quality alert of the year until late Wednesday night, as smoke-covered skies darkened the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana were other states that issued air quality alerts, and cities such as Louisville also advised the public to limit prolonged or intense outdoor activity.
"This is particularly thick smoke," National Weather Service meteorologist Byran Jackson said Wednesday. He added that another round of smoky air is passing through western New York and western Pennsylvania later Wednesday. "And then that continues over the northern Mid-Atlantic. It will persist there until Thursday," he said.
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Across Canada, 490 fires are burning, with 255 of them considered out of control. The Canadian Interagency Centre for Forest Fires reported Monday that 29,393 square miles of land, including forests, have burned across Canada since Jan. 1. This figure surpasses the previous record, set in 1989, of 29,187 square miles, according to the National Forest Database.
Small particles from wildfire smoke can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and affect the heart and lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Health officials say it's important to limit outdoor activities as much as possible to avoid breathing in the particles.
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President Joe Biden saw the impact firsthand Wednesday during a visit to Chicago, where he was expected to promote his renewable energy policies during a major speech on the economy. Biden has described the Canadian wildfires as clear evidence of climate change.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said a cold front will bring cleaner air from the west across the Great Lakes region early Thursday.
Record temperatures in Texas
Triple-digit temperatures in Texas this week make the state rival the hottest places on the planet, such as the Sahara Desert and parts of the Persian Gulf.
Texas has been suffering for weeks from a severe early-season heat wave that is spreading to the Lower Mississippi Valley and parts of the Southeast.
In the past week, several Texas cities, including San Angelo and Del Rio, have reached or exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius), temperatures most common at this time of year in parts of North Africa and the Middle East.
According to Joel Thornton, professor and chair of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington, global warming will lead to longer, hotter heat waves, making fires bigger and more smoking.
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The Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), the state's power grid operator, said energy use hit a preliminary all-time high on Tuesday due to demand for air conditioning, Reuters reported. ERCOT said it expects another record to be set on Wednesday.
A stagnant dome of high pressure has fueled dangerous heat and humidity across most of the state, with local officials warning people to take precautions and limit time outdoors.
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Extreme temperatures have already wreaked havoc. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the rate of emergency room visits attributed to heat last week was 30% higher than the same period last year.
An average of 702 heat-related deaths occur in the United States each year, according to the CDC. According to the National Weather Service, heat causes more deaths nationwide each year than any other weather phenomenon, including tornadoes, floods and hurricanes.
Brutal heat conditions across Texas are expected to persist Wednesday, with temperatures as high as triple digits in many places.
The National Weather Service reported early Wednesday that the heat dome is expected to "extend north into the middle Mississippi Valley," with high temperatures not going to cool much overnight. Forecasters have said much of the South will likely experience extreme heat and humidity that will persist through the July 4th holiday.