Smoke from wildfires in Canada is affecting air quality in northwest and west central Illinois.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday morning issued a special weather statement but noted conditions should improve later Tuesday afternoon.
The weather service says the Environmental Protection Agency indicates air quality in the affected area has reached unhealthy levels, largely northwest of the Illinois River.
The weather service says smoke from the wildfires has been drawn into the Midwest over the last several days. Authorities also say visibility has been reduced to a few miles because of haze. They say there have been reports of smoke being smelled because a cold front has drawn air downward.
Last month winds from the northwest carried smoke from forest fires in the Saskatchewan province in Canada down to the Chicago area, resulting in a layer of smoke about 9,000 feet above ground level.
“This is not uncommon. The wind flow happens to be from the exact right direction,” Andrew Krein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, said.
“It kind of looks like a very thin cirrus layer that normally would be much higher, only in this case it’s lower in the atmosphere,” he added.
The effect from the smoke is the same as after a volcanic eruption, when the ash carries from thousands of miles, Krein said.
