Wildfire Smoke Could Continue Into Fall For Minnesota

The days are getting shorter and kids are heading back to school, but Minnesota’s summer of Canadian wildfire smoke isn’t over just yet, the Star Tribune reported.

In 2023, “it will be winter and snowfall that actually puts these fires out in Canada," Minnesota Pollution Control Agency supervisory meteorologist Matt Taraldsen told the Tribune.

The agency reported in late June that the state had reached a new record for most air quality alerts in a single year. With 23 alerts at the time, 2023 surpassed the previous record of 21 alerts in 2021. Minnesota typically averages two or three alerts per season.

Since breaking the record in June, the state has had at least eight more alerts, not including expansions and extensions. An alert was in effect Tuesday into Wednesday for western Minnesota.

Hot, dry weather predicted in Canada in the coming weeks will continue to feed the flames up north, according to the Tribune, which noted the strongest fires are in the Northwest Territories, meaning when the smoke from those flames reaches Minnesota, it is less intense.