Canadian wildfires brings dense smoke to Michigan, but forecasted rain could wash it away

Michiganders are seeing — and smelling — the dangerous smoke from wildfires burning hundreds of miles away in Canada while weather forecasters are warning more of that dangerous ash-filled air is likely headed toward the state Thursday and Friday.

Weather watchers said, the recent dry weather also makes conditions ripe for more woodland blazes.

Dave Rexroth, the chief meteorologist at WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), predicted Thursday would be "about as bad or worse" as Wednesday and "it might even get worse on Friday." During his 11 p.m. Wednesday broadcast he also blamed a weather pattern known as an omega block, because of its shape like the Greek character omega, for forcing the smoke down into onto millions of Americans in the Midwest and along the East Coast.

Some relief, Rexroth and other forecasters said late Wednesday, could be coming to parts of Michigan as early as Sunday, with a 60%-70% chance of much-needed rain that could last for two or three days, but it is challenging to predict weather more than a week out and conditions could change.

Rain, starting Sunday, could help clear the smoke and dangerous air, but also dampen the extreme wildfire conditions throughout Michigan that Department Natural Resources officials have said they have not seen, but once or twice before, this bad in the nearly 50 years they have been monitoring it.

This past weekend, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for an "all-hands-on-deck response to the wildfires in northern Michigan" as a result of two forest fires in Crawford and Iosco counties, where especially dry conditions as a result of little rain had contributed to the danger.

Smoke blankets large swath of US

In New York, where the smoke was so thick Wednesday the sky in some cities appeared amber, a social media poster mentioned being about to "taste the air." Other residents told news outlets it was "hard to breathe" and that were so many particles in the air it "looked like Mars."

Dangerous smoke closed Northeastern schools, held up flights at major airports, and postponed major league baseball games in New York and Philadelphia. The Women's National Basketball Association called off a game in Brooklyn.

The hazy skies also prompted people to dig out their COVID-19 pandemic face masks to try keep the ash out of their lungs as experts said the air quality conditions could exacerbate respiratory problems, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Dr. Lawrence MacDonald, the chief of pulmonary medicine at DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital in Commerce Township, reassured Michigan residents that, for the most part, they should not be affected and could handle added dust and allergens.

Is relief in sight?

National Weather Service meteorologists added late Wednesday that relatively mild highs for this time of year, in the low to mid-70s, and wind gusts of only about 10-20 mph, should help mitigate the smoke's spread for the next couple of days.

By Thursday morning, while local skies may have looked clearer, weather forecasters, said that the air quality was still unhealthy. It can be difficult, the experts said, to detect what's in the air with the eye alone. Air quality, they added, was expected to improve slightly Thursday morning and afternoon, but get worse by early Friday.

Canadian officials have asked other countries to help it fighting more than 400 blazes that have displaced 20,000 people and reportedly stoked anxiety nationwide.

More: Wildfire danger remains extreme across Michigan — and now winds are coming

More: Smoke from Canadian wildfires creates respiratory hazards for southeast Michigan residents

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that some assistance was on the way. President Joe Biden, she said, is sending more than 600 firefighters and equipment to Canada, and the administration also has contacted some U.S. governors and local officials about providing assistance.

And in Detroit, where the air quality ranked Wednesday among some of the worst of metropolitan areas in the world, weather watchers ominiously warned that the lingering haze and orangey sun, could be foreshadowing what's to come in the future if more, over time, isn't done to address climate change.

"This is one of the things that has been highlighted as the threat for the region and for the country moving forward in the coming decades," Trent Frey, a weather service meteorologist in White Lake, said. "Models are projecting that there's going to be a higher risk for wildfires, as the climate warms in parts of Canada and the United States."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com. The Associated Press contributed.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Canadian wildfire haze dominates Michigan skies, but rain is in sight