06/16/26 Afternoon CommStock Report – Just When We Needed Something Else to Worry About

In what was a surprise to me, MN has been experiencing some of the worst air quality in the entire nation. My neighbor shared a screen shot of an air quality warning put out by the state of Minnesota. We live on the IA/MN border, close enough to share the air. They issued an ozone-pm2 air quality warning for June 9th. I had no idea what that was. I thought that ozone was in the upper atmosphere and there was a hole in it but did not know that it was a potential health hazard on the surface where we live and breathe. Last week the MPCA said that smoke from the wildfires across central Saskatchewan and Manitoba entered western Minnesota and then expanded further east. From Monday to Tuesday, the smoke dispersed from west to east. According to the press release, people are encouraged to avoid or limit outdoor physical activities. Hard to do if you are in the yard or field.   MPCA Meteorologist Matt Taraldsen said that the record warmth and very low dewpoints this spring means we may see three to five alerts due to ozone this year. “Those conditions make the perfect environment for the formation of…