Severe storms are rolling through central Minnesota including the Twin Cities

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Abundant rainfall in the Canadian wildfire zones has suppressed wildfire activity and smoke in parts of Canada, and widespread heavy rain in Minnesota has washed the air and produced good air quality for our state.

Air quality Wednesday afternoon is in the good to moderate range across most of Minnesota. Check out the map above.

Thursday’s air quality forecast looks similar. By Friday, good air quality is likely across more of Minnesota

Many of the wildfire zones in Canada have seen significant rainfall in the past week.

On the map below, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-16 visible satellite loop across central Canada Wednesday shows a mix of rain-bearing clouds and clear spots. There is much less visible smoke across the region this week.

The rainfall forecast suggests significant additional rainfall across Canada in the next 10 days. The map below is in millimeters of rainfall. For a checkpoint, 50 millimeters is about 2 inches of rain. So you can see it looks like another good soaking is ahead for much of Canada.

That should help keep wildfire smoke at a minimum hopefully for the next couple weeks.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Rainfall in Canada has suppressed wildfire activity this week. That means less smoke for Minnesota skies.

Minnesota air quality forecast improves as rain dampens wildfire smoke

MPCA

NOAA via College of DuPage

European (ECMWF) model precipitation output 

Minnesota air quality forecast improves as rain dampens wildfire smoke

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