Air Quality Alert Issued: Smokey Haze From Wildfires Engulfs Region

ALTON/EDWARDSVILLE - Alton, Edwardsville and residents across the area went to sleep and woke to hazy conditions, sparked by wildfires in Canada that have blown across the area. The National Weather Service and the Clean Air Partnership issued an Air Quality Alert for the region.

The Clean Air Partnership issued this on Facebook: “Today’s air quality forecast is orange. Those with lung disease, kids and seniors should reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion.”

Alex Elmore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in St. Louis, said it is important for anyone with asthma or breathing or respiratory issues to limit time outside today. He said also others, especially seniors, should limit their time outside.

“We will have some reduction in visibility,” he said. “This morning, the winds across the general St. Louis area are shifting out of the northeast and becoming more southerly, and the air will converge over the St. Louis area and make conditions worse. Visibility could be down to two miles or lower and the air quality will be poor. We expected southern winds to eventually thin out and move northward.”

Elmore said rain is in the forecast for the weekend and that should help scrub anything out of the atmosphere, but he added that the NWS can’t rule out conditions from the wildfires potentially returning.

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