Summer smoke from Canadian wildfires is once again hazing out Minnesota skies — just in time for your long-awaited Northwoods vacation. Not the pristine, fresh pine-forest air you were hoping for.

“It’s not really better or worse up here than the Twin Cities right now,” said John Fredrikson, co-owner of Cook County’s historic Gunflint Lodge, which overlooks Canada from the south side of Gunflint Lake. Fredrikson reported a “little bit of haze” over Gunflint on Friday.

It’s probably too late to cancel your accommodations. What can you do? Should you still go? And if you do, how can you prepare?

Assess the current situation by looking up the AQI for where you’re going.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a reliable indicator, with a six-part scale that ranges from “Good” to “Moderate” to “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” (such as asthma sufferers), on up to “Unhealthy,” “Very Unhealthy” and “Hazardous.”

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency maintains a map of current air quality conditions based on fine particulates (what we’re experiencing now) and ozone, including readings at dedicated test sites throughout the state. Local readings can vary wildly even within a region, but you can get a good idea of how bad the air the may be where you’re going.

Google has a very handy, color-coded AQI map (simply search “AQI Minnesota”) that gives a quick live look at where it’s bad, somewhat bad, and just OK. As of Friday morning, the Twin Cities metro area and nearby western Wisconsin were ruby red (for “Unhealthy”), while a central swath from St. Cloud to Brainerd was orange (“Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”). The Duluth-Superior area had a split personality this morning, with a refreshing green color (“Good”) in the Spirit Mountain recreation area, but red/Unhealthy over on the Wisconsin side of the border.

But the overall AQI takeaway for travelers today was pretty clear: Just get out of the metro area, for starters.

Consult air quality forecasts to find a last-minute destination.

The MPCA, again, has three-day forecast maps showing the conditions today, Saturday and Sunday. The current air-quality alert is set to expire at 11 p.m. today, and conditions for the rest of the weekend are “Moderate” or better in most of the state. On Sunday, the air is even expected to be “Good” in western and southern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities.