Minnesota's North Shore experiencing the worst air quality in America Tuesday

The far northeastern Minnesota city of Grand Portage, along North Shore of Lake Superior, has the worst air quality in all of America as of 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The entire North Shore and west to International Falls is under an air quality alert. The alert runs until 11 a.m. Thursday. The affected area includes Two Harbors, Hibbing, Ely and the Tribal Nation of Grand Portage.

Smoke levels will continue to climb Tuesday. The Particulate Matter 2.5 Index, which measures wildfire smoke, was at 176 in Grand Portage Tuesday morning. That was worse than other spots in southern California and in Colorado where there are active wildfires.

The forecast is for smoke to get worse along the North Shore later Tuesday. The smoke will then move towards Duluth Tuesday evening. The Twin Cities could even see some smoke on Wednesday.

“Heavy smoke may move further south into Minnesota Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, so the air quality alert may need to be expanded,” according to an alert issued by the the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. “Additional rounds of heavy smoke are possible across the region through at least Thursday morning.”

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