Air pollution alert starts Thursday for Chicago metro area

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has issued an Air Pollution Action Day Alert for the Chicago Metropolitan area for Thursday, July 2, and is expecting alerts to continue through the weekend due to an extended period of upcoming hot and dry weather conditions, which are conducive to ozone formation. The alert includes the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Lake, McHenry and Will. Regional air quality is expected to reach the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” category on the national Air Quality Index (AQI) today and extend into the weekend.