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Smoke From Canada, Alaska Set Off Air Quality Alert

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It smells like a campfire, but the smoky smell across the Northwoods has  international, national and meteorological reasons.

A large number of wildfires in Canada and Alaska have pumped massive amounts of smoke into the atmosphere. If you've watched the moon or sun set or rise, you've seen  a reddish haze and a cloudy atmosphere caused by the smoke.

While smoke from fires out west is not new in the Northwoods, residents in the Minocqua, Boulder Junction and Eagle River were particularly tweaked by the smoke which swooped down Monday night.

The DNR posted an air quality alert for northern and western Wisconsin. DNR meteorologist Mike Majewski said Tuesday the smoke usually stays up in the atmosphere, but the cold front on Monday brought the smoke in...

"...the atmosphere works in such a way that the atmosphere behind it is descending down towards the Earth, so that smoke that has been in the upper levels of the atmosphere is now coming down to the surface and we are smelling it, seeing it and measuring it on our monitoring sites...."

While the situation improved Tuesday, earlier the DNR posted an air quality alert of children, seniors and those with breathing or heart problems because of the particles in the air. A drought in Saskatchewan is said to be a major factor in the Canadian fires. Lightning is believed to have started most of the blazes.

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