Smog "alerts and advisories and watches" are not measurements of smog, just predictions that smog "could" possibly happen within the next 36 hours and the great lakes hasn't had one single smog warning day (actual smog) in close to 10 years now.
Environment Canada has one designation for all thunderstorms; “severe”. We defeated the smoggy 70’s when a river caught fire in Ohio and Rachel Carson’s goal was clean combustion producing only harmless CO2.
It’s interesting to note that upon settlement, the polar bear was indigenous to as far south as Minnesota but called the yellow bear because it retained its summer coat longer, but still the same bear.