Canadian wildfire smoke reaches South Florida, bringing ‘unhealthy air quality’

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By ANGIE DIMICHELE | adimichele@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel

Smoke from Canadian wildfires hung over areas from downtown West Palm Beach to downtown Miami on Tuesday, bringing haze and poorer air quality with parts of South Florida classified in the unhealthy air quality range.

Nearly the entire state of Florida experienced poorer air quality conditions Tuesday, with some areas ranging on the U.S. Air Quality Index from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups and unhealthy, according to an interactive map from AirNow, maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies.

States along the southeastern U.S. and Gulf coast were affected by the wildfire smoke, the map shows, though Florida was the only state with areas in the red, unhealthy range, the AirNow map showed.

All of Palm Beach County was in the unhealthy range, according to the AirNow map, as were areas of western Broward County and from Pompano Beach south to Oakland Park. The Fort Lauderdale area south into northern Miami-Dade County was in the range considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.