(Montreal) Wildfires raging in Quebec and Ontario continue to send large clouds of smoke south, across the two provinces and into the United States.
The heavy haze triggered air quality warnings in Toronto, Detroit and Chicago. As of Wednesday morning, these three cities held three of the top four spots in Air-IQ’s global rankings for poor air quality.
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, topped the list of major cities with a significant score of 411, which put its air quality in a category considered unsafe. Detroit ranked second, followed by Chicago and Toronto in fourth, with a rating suggesting unhealthy conditions for susceptible people.
Minneapolis ranked tenth among the most polluted cities.
Montreal was in 93e place, but Environment Canada predicted Tuesday evening the return of smoke in the metropolitan area during the night of Thursday, which should impoverish the air quality of the city.
Some of the smaller communities in southern Ontario not listed by Air-IQ were doing quite poorly Wednesday morning. For example, Sarnia had a score that puts the city not far behind Dubai.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center website says there were 487 active fires across the country as of Wednesday morning, with 253 classified as out of control.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 66 active fires in northern Ontario, and as of Wednesday morning, 76 fires were burning in the intensive zone in Quebec and 36 others in the northern zone.