The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has extended the Air Quality Action Day (AQAD) forecast  through today for all of Indiana.

Air quality is expected to reach the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (Orange) level.

IDEM is forecasting high ozone levels due to a significant increase in temperatures across the state and a continued air mass from Canadian wildfires in the following regions:

• Central/East Central Indiana, including the cities of: Bloomington, Brookville, Columbus, Frankfort, Indianapolis, Greensburg, Kokomo, Lebanon, Martinsville, Muncie, Richmond and all other cities within the area.
• North Central Indiana, including the cities of: Elkhart, Goshen, Knox, Logansport, Plymouth, Peru, South Bend, Warsaw, Winamac and all other cities within the area.
• Northeast Indiana, including the cities of: Angola, Auburn, Decatur, Fort Wayne, Hartford, Huntington City, LaGrange, Marion, Portland, Wabash and all other cities within the area.
• Northwest Indiana, including the cities of: Crown Point, Gary, Hammond, Kentland, LaPorte, Michigan City, Portage, Rensselaer, Valparaiso and all other cities within the area.
• Southeast Indiana, including the cities of: Brownstown, Corydon, Jeffersonville, Madison, New Albany, Salem, Versailles and all other cities within the area.
• Southwest Indiana, including the cities of: Bedford, Bloomfield, Evansville, Huntingburg, Mount Vernon, Paoli, Princeton, Rockport, Tell City, Vincennes and all other cities within the area.
• Western/West Central Indiana, including the cities of: Crawfordsville, Covington, Delphi, Fowler, Greencastle, Lafayette, Newport, Monticello, Spencer, Sullivan, Terre Haute and all other cities within the area.

A state map including regions and affected counties is available at SmogWatch.IN.gov. 

Note: IDEM forecasts are based, solely or in part, on data from air quality monitors located throughout the state. IDEM encourages residents of counties within or bordering the affected region(s) to heed the forecast. Air quality information for all Indiana counties can be found at SmogWatch.IN.gov. 

Some municipalities have additional open burning restrictions on AQADs. For more information, see idem.IN.gov/openburning/laws-and-rules. 

Air Quality Action Days are in effect from midnight to 11:59 p.m. (24 hours) on the specified date.

IDEM encourages everyone to help improve air quality by making changes to daily habits on Air Quality Action Days. You can:

• Carpool or use public transportation.
• Avoid using the drive-through and combine errands into one trip.
• Turn off engines instead of idling for long periods of time.
• Avoid using gas-powered equipment.
• Conserve energy by turning off lights and setting the air conditioner to a higher setting;
• Use propane gas instead of charcoal when grilling outdoors;
• Reminder: Indiana’s open burning laws make it illegal to burn trash and generally prohibit open burning, visit IN.gov/openburning for more information.

Get the most recent Shelby County Post headlines delivered to your email. Go to shelbycountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.