Millions of Americans face air quality alerts from Minnesota to New York as authorities urge people to stay indoors Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Smoke from wil…

Millions of Americans face air quality alerts from Minnesota to New York as authorities urge people to stay indoors Smoke from wildfires burning in south-central Canada and parts of Minnesota is spreading across the US, prompting air quality alerts in more than 20 states with millions of Americans expected to face unhealthy air conditions this week. The smoke from the more than 180 active wildfires in northern Ontario briefly made Toronto’s air quality among the worst in the world on Wednesday. By Wednesday night, the smoke had spread across several US states, from Minnesota, where multiple wildfires are also burning, to New York, blanketing the skies in haze and worsening air quality. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said that winds carried smoke from the Ontario fires “primarily south-east over much of the southern part of the province, as well as parts of Quebec and the US midwest and north-east, tinting the sky shades of gray and yellow and the sun orange in many areas”. As of Thursday morning, air quality alerts have been issued for parts of North Carolina, Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Michigan and Wisconsin. According to a map of air quality conditions provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency, air quality was at “unhealthy” levels on Thursday morning in parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Michigan with officials urging residents to “take precautions by reducing outdoor, activity”. The air quality is rated as “very unhealthy” across parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, while in certain parts of Michigan, including Detroit, as well as areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the air quality is listed as “hazardous”, with officials urging residents there to “stay indoors”. On Thursday morning, Detroit was listed as the city that currently has the worst air quality in the world on IQAir’s global rankings, followed by Toronto, and then Minneapolis and Chicago.