Poor air quality continues to plague parts of the country including Minnesota

Wildfire smoke blanketed northeastern states this week by dying the counties most populist cities in a red, orange or yellow sky.

While Minnesota didn’t experience a dramatic change in color, the state has yet to escape smokey skies itself. The haze will linger, and might do so throughout the summer, but a change in the weather this weekend should provide some temporary relief — and help clear the air.

Accompanying the air quality threat was a rise in temperatures and mugginess. One listener wrote, “we sure felt the dew point earlier this week while walking the dog around Lake Gervais in the Twin Cities.”  

According to retired University of Minnesota climatologist and meteorologist Mark Seeley, this was the first week with dew points in the 60s this year, but the all-time record high dew point for the month of June in the Twin Cities is 80°F which occurred on June 22, 1983.  With an afternoon air temperature of 87°F, the heat index reached 102°F that day.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Seeley in their weekly weather chat.

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