# Air Quality Alert: Cass; St. Joseph; Branch; Hillsdale; Northern Berrien; Southern Berrien — retained record

> Retained us-gov-api record from us-gov-api:noaa-weather.

Canonical: https://highsignal.app/data/records/0327cb7927155e78

[← sources](https://highsignal.app/data)


source: [us-gov-api](https://highsignal.app/data/us-gov-api) (us-gov-api:noaa-weather)  published 2026-07-16 09:22 ingested 2026-07-17 08:18

[original source ↗](http://www.weather.gov/)

## extract

Air Quality Alert — Cass; St. Joseph; Branch; Hillsdale; Northern Berrien; Southern Berrien
Severity: Unknown. Certainty: Unknown.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
(EGLE) has declared an Air Quality Alert for Thursday and Friday,
July 16 and 17, for elevated levels of fine particulate due to
wildfire smoke. Pollutants within those areas are expected to range
from Very Unhealthy to Hazardous.

The Air Quality Alert is in effect for the following counties in
southwest Michigan...

Berrien, Cass, St Joseph, Branch, and Hillsdale.

Plumes of smoke from Canadian wildfires continue to drift across
the region. Elevated fine particulate due to the smoke will continue
through Friday.

It is recommended that, when possible, you avoid strenuous outdoor
activities, especially those with heart disease and respiratory
diseases like asthma. Monitor for symptoms such as wheezing,
coughing, chest tightness, dizziness, or burning in nose, throat,
and eyes.

Reduce or eliminate activities that contribute to air pollution,
such as:
* outdoor burning,
* use of residential wood burning devices.

Tips for households: Keep windows closed overnight to prevent smoke
from getting indoors and, if possible, run central air conditioning
with MERV-13 or higher rated filters.

For up-to-date air quality data for Michigan visit the MiAir site:
Michigan.gov/MiAir

For up-to-date air quality data nationally visit EPA's Air Now site:
AirNow.gov

For further health information, please see MDHHS's Wildfire Smoke
and You Health site:
https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/safety-injury-prev/environmental-
health/your-health-and-wildfire-smoke

## retained text

The historical document was shared with another weather alert and cannot be attributed to this record. The original extract is preserved above; the exact alert link was not retained.