High school coaches and administrators across Minnesota have been asked to be aware of air-quality levels as athletes return to practice.
Practices were permitted for the first time Monday and have gone on as scheduled while state health and pollution control agency officials keep a close eye on 700 wildfires burning across Canada.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said air quality had improved and was below the alert threshold across northern Minnesota and that air quality would continue to improve across the state over the next few days.
Moderate levels of smoke continued to impact northern and central Minnesota on Wednesday, the agency said, but it cancelled an air-quality alert that went into effect for the entire state Monday morning.
The United States’ air-quality index (AQI) is on a scale of 0 to 500; the higher the number the worse the air. An AQI over 300 represents hazardous air quality, but concerns begin at much lower levels; an AQI above 100 is considered unhealthy. On Monday, Bemidji checked in at 179.
On Wednesday, the index was at 132 for northwestern Minnesota and Red River Valley North, and for the Duluth area and north-central Minnesota it was at 117, which is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, according to airnow.gov.
“We’ve been fortunate this week,” Duluth Denfeld football coach Erik Lofald said. “It was looking like [Wednesday] was really going to push into maybe that high red zone. If you get into the 150s and 160s, that’s when you have to really consider not maybe cancelling but really limiting your practices or moving inside. You get into that 200 area and we’re talking we can’t be outside at all. Yesterday was really the first day when we were like, ‘We may have to adjust here,’ and then it turned out to be a really nice day. It turned out to be windy and cooler.”
The AQI also uses a color scheme to indicate levels of seriousness. Thursday’s forecast showed only green (good) and yellow (moderate) for all of Minnesota as lingering smoke leaves the state; winds on Thursday are expected to push remaining smoke north.