Let Wildfire Season Begin!
By 
The annual burning of the North American continent has begun, with the health impacts that are going to get worse every year for the foreseeable future. This year, with drought in the U.S. at least not particularly bad right now outside the northern Rockies and a couple other isolated and mostly grassland areas, the focus like last year is on an extremely parched Canada and smoke blowing in from up north.
If you’re in the northern part of the Central United States and the skies look smoky, here’s why: Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin were under an air quality alert on Monday morning because of wildfire smoke from Canada.
On Sunday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued the alert for the entire state, which was set to expire at noon Eastern on Monday. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued an air quality alert for northwestern Wisconsin that was set to last through 10 a.m. on Monday.
Fine particle levels were expected to reach the red air quality index category, the agency said, which also warned that was “a level considered unhealthy for everyone, across all of Minnesota.” In those areas, officials said, everybody, and particularly sensitive people, should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion and should limit their time outdoors.
The smoke drifted to Minnesota on Sunday, behind a cold front, according to forecasters. In the northern part of the state, air quality had been expected to improve overnight, but smoke was still expected to persist through about midday.
In itself, this is not such a big story. Fire does happen after all. But this century has seen such an extreme increase in wildfire and it so early in the season. This is a good warning about what is likely to come as summer hits.