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Thick, billowing clouds of smoke are sweeping south from wildfires ravaging the central Canadian province of Manitoba into parts of the United States, compromising air quality for millions of Americans across several northern states.

The Manitoba wildfires have forced 17,000 people to flee the province, according to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who called the evacuation the largest in recent history. "With the wildfires in northern Manitoba intensifying, our government has triggered a provincewide state of emergency to help us through this crisis," Kinew said in a statement on Wednesday.

As the out-of-control blazes continue to ravage the province's prized wildlands, heavy clouds of smoke from the fires are making their way into the United States. The states most heavily impacted — Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota — have all issued air quality alerts for their residents.

Alerts in Wisconsin and Michigan counties are in effect until Saturday, with both states warning that the quality of air will become unhealthy for sensitive groups, including children, anyone with respiratory issues and older people.

In Minnesota, where the entire state is under alert for compromised air quality, the state's Pollution Control Agency warned that air quality was expected to reach the red category — impacting both sensitive groups and some members of the general public.

In 2024, while still dealing with fires carried over from the previous year, the nation fared only slightly better, experiencing its worst outbreak of wild blazes since 1995, excluding 2023. Wildfire smoke is pouring over the border into the U.S., impacting air quality and health hundreds of miles from the fires themselves. The U.S. has also battled increasingly devastating wildfires over recent years as climate change has made larger wildfires more likely and more intense.