Smell that?
If you're in the Chicago area and you stepped foot outside Tuesday, you can't miss the thick smoke and haze that's coating the sky. And you can't miss the smell, either.
"You'll definitely smell smoke and see haze from the [Canadian] wildfires," NBC 5 Meteorologist Alicia Roman said Tuesday morning, adding that it was expected to continue throughout the day.
By 11:35 a.m., the smoke and air quality had worsened, climbing from an "Unhealthy for some" to "Unhealthy" on the Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow six-level air quality scale.
When 12 p.m. struck, the air quality had risen to "Very Unhealthy," which ranks on government's scale as level four out of six.
According to NBC 5 Meteorologist Pete Sack, the smoke -- and the smell of it -- may hang around for some time.
"The air quality is poor, all around Lake Michigan," Sack said during a 12:35 p.m. update. "So even though we're looking at the weather and the conditions here in the Chicago area, across the entire Great Lakes region, folks are being affected by the wildfire smoke. Are we going to see this continue, the likelihood of this continuing, at least for the next couple of days, Very high after that."
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That means the smell that gets emanated from the wildfire smoke is expected to linger, too, Sack said.
"We have Canadian wildfires, in particular the wildfires up in Quebec, which is kind of interesting because they're firing up northeast of us," Sack continued. "But the upper air wind patterns are dragging all that smoke from northern Quebec down into the Chicago area….we're seeing it and smelling it right now."
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Chicagoans across social media also commented on the smell.
"First time I've been able to smell smoke in the air after stepping out of my apartment," a tweet from one Twitter user read.
"Stepped out to my porch to water my plants for 5 minutes and now I smell like a forest fire," another added.
According to AirNow, the PM2.5 -- an air pollutant also known as fine particulate matter, which is causing much of the haze in the region -- reached 250 as of 2 p.m. By comparison, levels were at 209 at 11:30 a.m.
According to the National Weather Service, an air quality action day has been declared for Tuesday and Wednesday, for all of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana due smoke from Canadian wildfires moving into the region and "pushing air quality into the unhealthy or worse categories."
"Those with chronic respiratory issues should limit time outdoors," the NWS added
In Evanston, officials moved to close all beaches "for the remainder of the day due to air quality issues," a tweet from Evanston police said. Ravi Kalhan, deputy division chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Northwestern Medicine, likened breathing Chicago’s air to "smoking half-a-pack of cigarettes."
According to the World Air Quality Index, which ranks cities across the globe from worst air quality to best, Chicago currently holds the No. 1 spot.
Just before 11 a.m. Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's office moved to issue a statement about the air quality, saying "The City of Chicago is carefully monitoring and taking precautions as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has categorized our Air Quality Index as 'unhealthy' due to Canadian wildfire smoke present in the Chicago region," it read. "We recommend children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and individuals who are pregnant avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors."
Minutes after Johnson issued his statement, Chicago's air quality worsened even more.
We're keeping track of live air quality updates from Chicago and the suburbs here.
