Canadian wildfire smoke has blown into central and southern Minnesota, which is under an air quality alert through Wednesday night. The state has now surpassed its average air quality alert count ten times over.

The average number of air quality alerts in a year is two or three. This week marks 23. The previous record was 21 alerts issued in 2021.

Wednesday’s air quality alert comes from smoke from wildfires in Ontario and Quebec, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says.

The alert includes the Twin Cities metro, Albert Lea, Marshall, Worthington, Rochester, Hinckley, Winona, Mankato and the tribal nations of Upper Sioux, Prairie Island and Mille Lacs. The alert area no longer includes northeast Minnesota.

Fine particle levels are expected to reach unhealthy levels in the metro, Albert Lea, Rochester, Winona, Mankato, Marshall, Worthington and the tribal nations of Upper Sioux and Prairie Island. The MPCA says everyone in those areas should “limit prolonged or heavy exertion and time spent outdoors.”

Areas with air quality levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups include Brainerd, Hinckley, Alexandria and the tribal nation of Mille Lacs. Sensitive groups should limit outdoors and exercise time, the MPCA says.

View an interactive map of air quality on the MPCA’s website.

A cold front is expected to move across the state Wednesday afternoon and bring cleaner air from the west by midnight.

Fire seasons are becoming more severe, longer and more frequent because of climate change, which is also causing more extreme weather.

Minnesota is getting wetter with time, but the state has seen record wet years in 2016 and 2019 followed by a few years of drought.

Canada is facing the same; droughts, extreme cold and wet periods have frequented the country.

The state will likely see more frequent periods of worsened air quality in the coming years, depending on weather patterns like flooding and wet periods.

Fires in western Canada started this spring. Since then, hot and dry conditions started fires in eastern Canada that are still going strong — that’s where smoke has been coming from these past few weeks.

Those eastern fires are currently affecting areas beyond Minnesota: Haze has settled over most of the Great Lakes region, while unhealthy air has moved as far south as Kentucky and Missouri.

Rain plays a role in air quality, both for better and worse.

Precipitation earlier in June pushed wildfire smoke down to the surface and worsened the air quality. But a significant amount of heavy rain — like showers and thunderstorms expected Wednesday across parts of Minnesota — can clear up fine particulates and alleviate air quality concerns.

People can make their own indoor air filters by attaching furnace filters to the backs of box fans.

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  Wildfire smoke in Minnesota: How to best protect your health and your home
  
  


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  Minnesota sets record for most air quality alerts in a season
  
  


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  The latest on wildfires in Minnesota
  
  

Apart from Saturday’s storms, which accounted for 39 percent of Minnesota’s severe weather warnings this season so far, it’s been a quiet summer for intense storms.

The state is in its least-active severe weather season since 1995. Last year, Minnesota’s severe weather season kicked off with a record start.

Get the latest weather news, updates and forecasts on Updraft. The MPCA has updates on current air quality conditions.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation on Minnesota Now with MPR News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard and MPR News host Emily Bright.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

More than a year after the Feeding Our Future scandal that allegedly saw millions in stolen aid, Minnesota nonprofits are getting a billion dollars in funding.

Lawmakers say they have increased transparency and accountability measures to stave off wrongdoing.

And new information out today about the delays and cost overruns of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project, now a decade behind schedule.

Plus, another hazy, cloudy day in Minnesota. Sven Sundgaard shares our Fourth of July forecast and whether clear skies are in our future.

And we'll head to the Northwest Angle of Minesota for the story of a well-loved resort preparing for a big celebration... and transition.

State auditors released a third report Wednesday on the delays and cost overruns of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project. The 14.5-mile line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie is running almost a decade behind schedule and nearly three times as expensive as initial estimates. MPR News reporter Tim Nelson joined senior producer Emily Bright to talk about the issues that have cropped up since construction began in 2019.

Reneka Evans has worked in health care in the Twin Cities for more than two decades — at the African American AIDS task force, the Red Door Clinic in Minneapolis, and now at the Minnesota Department of Health. As part of MPR News’ Changemakers series, health reporter Michelle Wiley spoke with Evans about her life, and her goals for the future.

It didn’t get a hearing in the 2023 Minnesota legislative session, but a bill was introduced that would allow people of sound mind, with a terminal illness, to choose the time of their death with a physician-prescribed dose of lethal medication.

There are other ways to hasten death. A Minnesota woman and her daughter were public about a specific exit strategy, a decision that resulted in her recent passing.

Cheryl Hauser, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019, decided to end her life, on her terms, before the worst of the disease took effect. To do that, she planned to stop eating and drinking.

It’s a process known as V-SED, which stands for “voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.” And this spring, she did just that. Hauser died on June 2 at the age of 76 with her family and caregivers making sure she was comfortable and without pain or anxiety.

Her daughter, Wendy Longacre Brown, is an end-of-life doula and was active in helping to plan for and chronicle her mother’s death. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

The Supreme Court issued a major ruling today that rejects a legal theory that could have reshaped federal elections in this country, giving state legislatures power to set rules for federal elections. We talk with a Hamline University law professor about what this means for democracy.

Adults with felonies will be able to vote in the next round of elections in Minnesota. We'll talk with a formerly incarcerated man who is helping others with past convictions register to vote.

Terminal illness forces some families to determine how their loved one wants to die. We'll hear from a Twin Cities woman who helped her mother say goodbye on her own terms.

And an Elk River graduate is a contestant on a cooking new reality show. We'll hear his journey to becoming a chef... and get a preview of his time on the show.

On Saturday an estimated 55,000 Minnesotans with a felony on their records with be eligible to vote in any local, state or federal election.

They’ll be able to vote after they leave prison and before they complete parole. It’s the biggest act of voting franchisement since the voting age was changed from 21 to 18 in 1971.

Antonio Williams is the founder of Tone Up, an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people find a place back into their communities. He’s working on getting formerly incarcerated Minnesotans registered to vote now that they’re eligible.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Leon Belmont just wanted to be left alone. But in 1880, he suddenly found himself at the center of a media frenzy—all because a girlfriend went to the Minneapolis police with the story that her dashing, curly-headed Belmont was really a woman. Lizzie Ehrenhalt, a Minnesota historian with a focus on gender and sexuality, is writing a book about Belmont. She’s calling it Curious and Romantic Sensation, a title derived from contemporary newspaper accounts.

An Elk River, Minn. native is a contestant on “Secret Chef” — a new reality cooking competition from Hulu. All episodes are out Thursday, June 29.

Josh Walbolt, a New Jersey-based private chef, grew up in the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. He spoke with MPR News host Emily Bright.

The Supreme Court issued a major ruling today that rejects a legal theory that could have reshaped federal elections in this country, giving state legislatures power to set rules for federal elections. The high court's ruling could have an important role in preventing political gerrymandering...the deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries that create an unfair advantage for a specific party.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Jason Marisam, an Associate Professor of Law at Hamline University in St. Paul. He’s been following this case, and he wrote about it this spring for the Michigan Law Review...which happened to have been cited by the authors of three briefs in this specific case taken up by the High Court.