Jason E. Andersen

You have probably seen the odd-looking and brightly-colored sunsets over the last few days. This is due to the amount of smoke in the air from wildfires in western states. There are currently 79 large wildfires (basically, they’re big enough to create their own weather) and several dozen smaller fires burning. This creates a lot of smoke! That smoke is carried eastward by the prevailing winds and, a thousand or so miles later, it floats passed us here in the Midwest.

Bonus Fun Fact: You can track wildfire smoke and air quality through the AirNow website, created by the Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program. It’s a handy tool that monitors air quality across the US and projects the smoke impact of wildfires. You can view it at fire.airnow.gov. Science is pretty amazing.