What a difference a day makes.

“The skies are still hazy today,” says David Brown, an environmental research scientist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. “You can see the smoke lingering, but the numbers have dropped a lot.”  

A view from I-35W, just south of downtown Minneapolis, gives a clearer picture of the skyline.

Yesterday, a smoky fog covered the metro during an air quality alert.

The MPCA says the changing conditions mean most of us are okay to spend more time outside.

“In the Twin Cities, in Rochester, people can go out and spend time outdoors you know, except for people that might have severe asthma or other respiratory symptoms,” Brown notes. “Probably take it easy.”

The source of all that smoke?

The wildfires burning coast-to-coast across Canada.

“This season is unprecedented,” declares Jennifer Kamau, the communications manager with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. “It started early and accelerated quickly.”

Kamau shared a map with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS showing about 450 forest fires burning, with nearly half of them out of control.  

“The more we know about wildland fire smoke, the more we realize how hazardous it is to human health,” says Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University.

Just ask Jessie Carr, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health.

Carr says she isn’t sure, but suspects she may have gotten some hoarseness in her voice from being outside the last few days.

“You can hear my voice right now, this is unusual for me,” she says. “I didn’t realize on Tuesday that we were in a moderate situation. I didn’t realize it was yellow. So, I went for a pretty extra-long bike ride, and really felt it in my lungs.”

Her advice?

If the air quality turns bad, Carr suggests trying to get ahold of some N-95 masks, which can filter out particulates.

“They are designed to filter out those small particles,” she says. “N-95 masks were originally designed for occupational workers who are exposed to higher levels of smoke or dust or combustion products.”

Carr also says limiting time outdoors is helpful, as well as spending more time inside — at your home or in an atmosphere-controlled environment, like a shopping mall.

“Your window unit or the central air conditioning will do a good job of filtering out most of these particles,” she explains.  

But could we see those smoky skies again this summer?

The MPCA, which is closely monitoring fires in Ontario, isn’t ruling anything out.

“It’s very possible we could see more events like this. It’s hard to say exactly how heavy the smoke will be,” Brown says. “There are newer fires in Ontario that are closer than the bigger ones that have been impacting us this year so far. If those ones grow to a large size, considering they’re much closer, they could bring really heavy smoke into the Twin Cities again.”