Over 80 million people from the Midwest to the East Coast are under air quality alerts as smoke from the Canadian wildfires sweep across the U.S. border Tuesday, prompting beach closures, warnings about reduced visibility and calls to stay indoors.Canada is seeing its worst fire season on record with hundreds of wildfires raging across the country – more than 200 of them burning "out of control," according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The wildfires have led to the highest emissions on record for the country, according to a Tuesday report from Copernicus.Video above: The kind of air conditioner filter you need to filter smoke from your homeAs smoke crosses into the U.S., air quality alerts have been issued for the entire states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Delaware and Maryland as well are portions of Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, according to the National Weather Service. Residents are being advised to stay indoors with their air conditioning running or wear N95 masks if they have to be outside.Chicago had the worst air quality in the world Tuesday evening, according to IQAir. The city's Air Quality Index measured at 193 – a high reading designated as "unhealthy."The city has asked all residents – especially those with heart or lung disease, older adults, pregnant people and young children – to avoid outdoor activities and protect themselves from exposure. Chicago Public Schools and camps are also moving activities indoors, city officials said in a news release.Video below: Homemade air purifier can protect against wildfire smoke inside at homeAbout 11 miles away, Evanston, Illinois, is closing all swimming beaches and canceling a concert Tuesday due to the poor air quality, the city said on Facebook, asking residents to limit outdoor exposure through Wednesday. Across the state line in Michigan, the Mackinac Bridge stood covered with smoke Tuesday. Drivers were asked to drive slow and with caution due to the reduced visibility on the bridge. Detroit, Michigan, had the second worst air quality in the world Tuesday evening, with an "unhealthy" Air Quality Index is at 174, according to IQAir.High levels of fine particulate in the air in Michigan could become unhealthy or hazardous for all residents at some points – not just sensitive groups, the state's health department warned. "The most protective option when air is unhealthy for you is to stay indoors with air conditioning, reduce strenuous activities and limit outdoor activities. If you have to be outside, N95 masks offer enhanced protection when used according to product instructions," the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said.Indianapolis drivers were also warned about reduced visibility, with the National Weather Service saying to "be prepared for haze that could suddenly reduce visibilities" in some areas Tuesday and Wednesday.Video below: Canada's provinces, territories sign on to national climate adaptation strategyNew York is also expected to see unhealthy levels of smoke return Wednesday and Thursday to some areas – about three weeks after New York City topped the list of the world's worst air pollution as smoke from the Canadian wildfires wafted south, turning skies orange. "New Yorkers should be prepared for elevated levels of fine particulate pollution caused by smoke on Wednesday and Thursday," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. "Current projections show the highest concentrations of smoke will slowly push east across the eastern half of New York State during the day Thursday, extending across much of the state."In Ohio, a spokesperson for the Cleveland's mayor's office said "what happened in NY a few weeks ago and Chicago today may happen here in Cleveland tomorrow."The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency issued an air quality advisory, forecasting fine particulate levels in the "Unhealthy" Air Quality Index range.Wildfire smoke carries particulate matter, or PM2.5 – a tiny but dangerous pollutant that, when inhaled, can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The particulate matter has been linked to a number of health problems including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses.

CHICAGO —

A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow Friday, forecasters said.

A foot of snow was expected to accumulate in northern New York and northern New England, but it was the ice that threatened to wreak havoc on travel and electric service in the Northeast before the storm heads out to sea late Friday and Saturday, said Rick Otto, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

“Snow is a lot easier to plow than ice,” he said.

Even after the storm pushes off to sea late Friday and Saturday, ice and snow were expected to linger through the weekend because of subfreezing temperatures, Otto said.

About 350,000 homes and businesses lost power from Texas to Ohio on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused a deadly tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall and hundreds of power outages to parts of Texas.

The highest totals of power outages blamed on icy or downed power lines were concentrated in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Ohio, but the path of the storm stretched further from the South and Northeast on Thursday. Several schools and universities across the region closed on Friday as a result of poor weather conditions.

Along the warmer side of the storm, strong thunderstorms capable of damaging wind gusts and tornadoes were possible Thursday in parts of Mississippi and Alabama, the Storm Prediction Center said.

In western Alabama, a tornado that hit a rural area Thursday afternoon killed one person, a female he found under rubble, and critically injured three others. A home was heavily damaged.

Tornadoes in the winter are unusual but possible, and scientists have said the atmospheric conditions needed to cause a tornado have intensified as the planet warms.

Heavy snow the storm brought to Midwestern states isn't unusual, except the bigger-than-normal path of intense snow in some places, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini. With a warmer climate, people are forgetting what a Midwestern winter had long been like, he said.

"The only amazing winters I've been able to experience is through my parents' photographs of the 1970s," Gensini, who is 35, said. "This (storm) is par for the course, not only for the past, but winters current."

More than 20 inches of snow was reported in the southern Rockies, while more than a foot of snow fell in areas of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

The flight-tracking service FlightAware.com showed more than 9,000 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Thursday or Friday had been canceled, on top of more than 2,000 cancellations Wednesday as the storm began.

"Unfortunately, we are looking at enough ice accumulations that we will be looking at significant travel impacts," Orrison said.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, an American Airlines hub, an estimated 700 customers stayed Wednesday night in its terminals, according to an airport statement. Airport personnel provided pillows, blankets, diapers and infant formula to the marooned travelers. Airport officials said in the same statement that on Thursday night "we are ready to provide assistance in anticipation of customers who may need to stay in the terminals."

The Ohio Valley was especially affected Thursday, with 211 flight cancellations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Thursday. An airport spokeswoman told the Cincinnati Enquirer that all flights were canceled Thursday except for Delta Air Lines and American Airlines flights before noon.

Nearly all Thursday afternoon and evening flights were canceled at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, and Friday flights could be as well, spokeswoman Natalie Chaudoin told the Louisville Courier-Journal. UPS suspended some operations Thursday at its Worldport hub at the airport, a rare move.

Almost 300,000 homes and businesses were still without power as night fell Thursday, most of them in Tennessee and Ohio, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. As night fell Thursday, almost 150,000 Tennessee customers were without power, including about 135,000 in the Memphis area alone — or one-third of the customers of Memphis Light, Gas & Water.

Power restoration could take days, said Gale Carson, the utility's spokeswoman. "It's not going to be a quick process," she said.

Six people were taken to a hospital after a 16-vehicle crash on a Memphis highway. Two were in critical condition when taken to an emergency room after the crash on Austin Peay Highway, the Memphis Fire Department said on Twitter. Four others suffered non-critical injuries.

Trees sagged under the weight of ice in Memphis, resulting in fallen tree limbs and branches. Parked cars had a layer of ice on them and authorities in several communities around the city warned of some cars sliding off slick roadways.

Meantime, almost 70,000 were without power in Ohio, with large percentages of the population in southeastern Ohio in the dark.

In Texas, the return of subfreezing weather brought heightened anxiety nearly a year after February 2021's catastrophic freeze that buckled the state's power grid for days, leading to hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history.

Facing a new test of Texas' grid, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said it was holding up and on track to have more than enough power to get through the storm. Texas had about 70,000 outages by Thursday morning, nowhere close to the 4 million outages reported in 2021. About half had their power restored by evening.

Abbott and local officials said Thursday's outages were due to high winds or icy and downed transmission lines, not grid failures.

In Dallas, where snow rarely accumulates, the overnight mix of snow and freezing rain had hardened Thursday afternoon into an icy slick that made roads perilous.

South Bend, Indiana, reported a record snowfall for the date on Wednesday with 11.2 inches, eclipsing the previous record of 8 inches set on the date in 1908, said Hannah Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's office in Syracuse, Indiana.

Once the storm pushes through, she said temperatures will see a big drop, with Friday's highs mostly in the upper teens followed by lows in the single digits in northern Indiana, along with bone-chilling wind chills.

"It's definitely not going to be melting real quick here," Carpenter said Thursday morning.

The frigid temperatures settled into areas after the snowy weather, with Kansas residents awakening to dangerous wind chills of around 15 below zero. In New Mexico, schools and nonessential government services were closed in some areas Thursday because of icy and snow-packed roads.

The disruptive storm began Tuesday and moved across the central U.S. on Wednesday's Groundhog Day, the same day the famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. The storm came on the heels of a nor'easter last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.

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Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Paul J. Weber in Austin; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Paul Davenport in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis and Jay Reeves in Alabaster, Alabama, contributed to this report.