National Weather Forecast

Scattered showers and storms will be possible on Thursday from the Northwest to the Upper Midwest southward through the Plains and to the Southeast. Some of this will be due to a frontal boundary in place. An area of low pressure near the Northeast will lead to a few showers but also help continue to usher Canadian wildfire smoke into the region with poor air quality expected.

Another day of at least unhealthy air quality is expected across the Eastern United States on Thursday with the smoke from wildfires in Quebec being dragged south and east.

Some of the heaviest rain chances through Friday will be in the Northwestern United States as well as southern Florida. In both areas, rainfall amounts of 2”+ will be possible for some.

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This Is Already One of the Worst Wildfire Pollution Events in U.S. History

More from HeatMap: “Today — Wednesday, June 7 — is virtually guaranteed to be among the worst two days for wildfire smoke in American history, and possibly the worst day ever, a new and rapid analysis conducted by Stanford researchers suggests.The research found that Tuesday was the third-worst day in American history for exposure to wildfire smoke on a population-weighted basis. Given that conditions have been worse on Wednesday than Tuesday, today is all but certain to rank even higher on the list, the researchers said. Not since California’s conflagrations in September 2020 — when the Bay Area clouded with soot and ash, and the sky over San Francisco turned flame-orange — have so many Americans been exposed to so much toxic wildfire smoke.”

A shocking number of birds are in trouble

More from ArsTechnica: “Just about anywhere you look, there are birds. Penguins live in Antarctica, ptarmigan in the Arctic Circle. Rüppell’s vultures soar higher than Mt. Everest. Emperor penguins dive deeper than 1,800 feet. There are birds on mountains, birds in cities, birds in deserts, birds in oceans, birds on farm fields, and birds in parking lots. Given their ubiquity—and the enjoyment many people get from seeing and cataloging them—birds offer something that sets them apart from other creatures: an abundance of data. Birds are active year-round, they come in many shapes and colors, and they are relatively simple to identify and appealing to observe. Every year around the world, amateur birdwatchers record millions of sightings in databases that are available for analysis.

Climate Crisis Is on Track to Push One-Third of Humanity Out of Its Most Livable Environment

More from ProPublica: “Climate change is remapping where humans can exist on the planet. As optimum conditions shift away from the equator and toward the poles, more than 600 million people have already been stranded outside of a crucial environmental niche that scientists say best supports life. By late this century, according to a study published last month in the journal Nature Sustainability, 3 to 6 billion people, or between a third and a half of humanity, could be trapped outside of that zone, facing extreme heat, food scarcity and higher death rates, unless emissions are sharply curtailed or mass migration is accommodated. The research, which adds novel detail about who will be most affected and where, suggests that climate-driven migration could easily eclipse even the largest estimates as enormous segments of the earth’s population seek safe havens. It also makes a moral case for immediate and aggressive policies to prevent such a change from occurring, in part by showing how unequal the distribution of pain will be and how great the improvements could be with even small achievements in slowing the pace of warming.

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– D.J. Kayser