July 2026 General Discussion

[Torchageddon]

5 minutes ago, Stebo said:

Honestly, I don't think we have another option.

I thought there was a backup like the old GOES but that was long ago probably not the same. Using WEST I can see our region but I want to zoom in even if its low-res.

[Brian D]

And it continues. "Sigh"

[Brian D]

Horrible AQI in NE MN. Similar to yesterday.

[WestMichigan]

AQI is 590 at the closest reporting spot I could find.  Just flat out nasty and not getting better any time soon.

[SchaumburgStormer]

Hello stinky haze my old friend 

[Brian D]

Radical. Hibbing /Virginia area just updated on the map. With HP overhead, air is stagnant atm.

[A-L-E-K]

 

 

[pen_artist]

Hands down the strongest I have smelled wildfire smoke in Chicago area. Glad I opted to do my run indoors this morning

[A-L-E-K]

nest has popcorn firing to my west along the differential heating boundary between smoke and clear air

[BeastFromTheEast]

21 minutes ago, A-L-E-K said:

nest has popcorn firing to my west along the differential heating boundary between smoke and clear air

Gonna be some nasty sediment from whatever rain falls. 
 

Should see some gnarly pics the next few days 

[Chicago Storm]

8 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

luckily looks like the real high grade stuff should stay east of mby

This is the worst it has been for our area.

There's gonna be some record AQI’s.

[A-L-E-K]

Just now, Chicago Storm said:

this is the worst it has been for our area.

gonna be some record aqi’s.

stuck using goes west sucks, still looks like worst is just east but yeah, it's clearly awful out

[csnavywx]

6 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

All these wildfires have their own scent, this one is nasty

If I had to guess, your nose is probably picking up a bit of peat+muskeg burning mixed in there. People have no idea how much worse it can get once the main shield peatlands and mixed peat/forest stands start burning. Gonna guess winter is going to be extremely warm up there this year and tilt the dice towards early warming/drying of those areas into next summer.

[A-L-E-K]

thick af

 

[A-L-E-K]

brutal

[hawkeye_wx]

GOES East is back up.

[Powerball]

4 minutes ago, hawkeye_wx said:

GOES East is back up.

I'm guessing there will be a lag with the live maps updating (they're still not working).

[pen_artist]

From Mike Caplan Chicago Meteorologist:

 

This is incredible. AQI of 549 in downtown Chicago at 1pm

[sbnwx85]

We're right on the southern edge of the smoke. AQI has been in the 100's all day. Slowly getting worse. I wasn't able to smell anything in the smoke this morning, but getting a faint hint of something this afternoon.

[WestMichigan]

Just now, sbnwx85 said:

We're right on the southern edge of the smoke. AQI has been in the 100's all day. Slowly getting worse. I wasn't able to smell anything in the smoke this morning, but getting a faint hint of something this afternoon.

You don't want what is just north of you

[Powerball]

Looks like the smoke's going to stick around for Detroit much of the day on Friday as well...

[Baum]

On 6/30/2026 at 2:26 PM, Chicago Storm said:

The best month of the year has arrived.

Heat, humidity, bugs and smoke. Soak it all in. 

[Chicago Storm]

1SM FU VV020 here at ORD currently.

[A-L-E-K]

yeah smoke really flexing on cook co now

[Chicago Storm]

6 minutes ago, A-L-E-K said:

yeah smoke really flexing on cook co now

Secondary lake breeze that moved through is helping to pull more smoke in.

[hawkeye_wx]

1 hour ago, Powerball said:

I'm guessing there will be a lag with the live maps updating (they're still not working).

GOES East on COD's website has been up and running for a couple hours.

[outflow]

One of the candidates running for governor of mi is using the smoke as a platform to get votes.  He promises if he is elected he will force Canada to take action and stop the fires from  harming the lives of the people of mi.

[CheeselandSkies]

Mets at my work said we hit upper 400s for AQI around midday, shattering the old record for Madison (set during Smokeageddon '23). However my phone hasn't budged from the 156 it displayed early this morning, even after I rebooted it.

[CheeselandSkies]

Tuesday was 5 years since a fairly prolific tornado outbreak in north central-northeast Iowa. I managed to put myself in great position for the Waverly multivortex EF2 and then blow it, only getting 30 seconds or so of footage AFTER it produced its last visibly condensed vortex. Thus I don't count it as my "official" first tornado although I did glimpse an elephant's trunk vortex in my rear view mirror before pulling over, snapping a photo (during which it was still partially condensed) and then rolling video after which it stubbornly refused to condense again and I was apparently more interested in filming the more visually ominous inflow band.
 

 

[TheNiño]

The past few years has been crazy with the smoke but this is the worst I’ve ever experienced. AQI in Libertyville was over 700 briefly. That’s absolutely insane.

Not sure how to look up historical data on this but is this a relatively new thing within the past 5-10 years? I do not remember anything like this ever happening in the 90s - 2010s.

I’m sure climate change is a contributor but what else is at play here? Why are the fires so much more intense than in decades past? Has Canada stopped doing some sort of prevention/mitigation that they used to do in the past? Have rainfall amounts dramatically decreased up there recently? Or am I simply misremembering and this has always been an issue? It feels like this only started happening maybe 5 years ago but it’s been every summer since.