SerpApi.Org
At the Anoka County Blaine Airport you'll find a small testing center, one of a few dozen sites in the state that collect air quality readings for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Nathaniel Niebeling is the metro field lead for the MPCA Air Monitoring Unit. His job is to make sure the equipment is maintained so the readings they collect are as accurate as possible.
“The focal point is just being ready for whatever is going to come and ready to serve the equipment,” Niebeling said.
On Thursday morning the equipment at the Anoka air quality testing facility showed an air particulate reading of 302 micrograms per square meter.
MPCA Supervisory Meteorologist Matt Taraldsen says that reading is significantly higher than a typical reading for the Twin Cities metro.
“Our normal in the Twin Cities is between nine and 13,” Taraldsen said. “The base level for issuing an air quality alert is 35.5 micrograms per cubic meter.”
Taraldsen says the air quality readings this week are the highest the MPCA has ever recorded in the Twin Cities metro.
The readings in northern Minnesota are even higher. Taraldsen says some of the readings in the area around Ely are hovering around 800 micrograms per square meter.
"It's almost unbelievable. Even forecasting this stuff, to see these numbers coming in, it's far and beyond even what our previous records were."
Taraldsen says the smoky air should clear the Twin Cities metro by Friday morning.
He says communities in central and northern Minnesota will likely see smoky air through the weekend and possibly into next week.
And this could be the first wave of several air quality alerts this summer if the wildfires in northern Minnesota continue to burn.
