"A lot of the prairies within Canada, the prairie provinces, entered the fire season already starting out in a drought, and so there wasn't a lot of moisture throughout the winter," said Alex Jones a communications manager at the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

Smoke from wildfires in Manitoba, a Western province facing its worst fire season in 30 years, has created hazardous air quality conditions across Eastern Canada and the United States.

An air quality alert is in effect for nearly the entire state through Friday, but northern and central Minnesota will bear the brunt of it, due to their proximity to Canadian wildfires.