Like dense smoke of forest fires The burn in Canada continued to blanket parts of the US Wednesday from Minnesota to Massachusetts, and as far south as North Carolina, with forecasts suggesting air quality won’t improve substantially for several more days.
“We’ve been in a blocked pattern across North America all week,” Weather Channel meteorologist Jen Carfagno told CBS News in an email. “This kept an upper-level low pressure area stuck to the northeast. The flow around the low pressure has been guiding wildfire smoke from Qeubec into the northeast, the Great Lakes and even the Ohio Valley and down into the mid-Atlantic.”
The smoke from the United States will begin to clear when the weather pattern finally changes, Carfagno said. The change is expected over the weekend, when forecasts indicate that the wind will change direction “at all levels of the atmosphere and bring cleaner air”, he added, noting that some rain showers in the north -est they could arrive before that and take some of them. temporary smoke relief.
COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH OF THE STATE OF COLORADO AND NATIONAL COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH OF THE STATE OF COLORADO AND NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (CSU/CIRA & NOAA) OCEANIC ADMINISTRATION AND ATMOSPHERIC (OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION)
A gray haze settled in the skies over major metropolitan areas in the northeastern United States earlier this week as winds swirled around a low-level weather system hovering over the Canadian Maritimes, a group of eastern provinces currently experiencing a particularly severe and unusual wildfire outbreak. season Fires are raging in Quebec, Ottawa and Nova Scotia, where over the weekend federal officials said an uncontained fire was burning 100 square miles of land.
Strong winds are driving the smoke down past the Canadian border with the US and into a large swath of states.
“An upper low is directing a plume of smoke from the Canadian wildfires south and across the east, including urban areas along I-95,” says a alert shared online by the National Weather Service, which notes that “elevated to critical weather conditions can be expected from the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.”
The smoke has affected air quality for millions of people, with northern states like Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania suffering some of the worst. New York City’s air quality and pollution ranked second the worst in the world for the cities on Wednesday morning, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.
Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
The stark images of New York City show iconic landmarks shrouded in what appears to be thick fog, and the smell of smoke has lingered in the air for several days. On Monday and Tuesday, the people of the Northeast witnessed both the moon and the sun, bringing a red-orange glow.
An air quality the health advisory was in effect Wednesday across much of New York state, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The advisory showed air quality was “unhealthy” for the New York City metropolitan area, eastern Lake Ontario and central New York, and “unhealthy for groups sensitive’ on Long Island, the lower Hudson Valley, the upper Hudson Valley, and western New York. Air quality in the Adirondacks was “moderate,” according to the advisory.
Other warnings issued earlier in the week for parts of Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC, remained in place, with some still active in the Midwest. On Wednesday, Georgia meteorologists warned residents of the potential for reduced air quality in northern regions.
“Reduced air quality is possible today and tonight due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires,” NWS Atlanta said in a tweet. “Especially sensitive groups may be affected in North GA.”
Reduced air quality is possible today and tonight due to smoke from Canadian wildfires🔥. Especially sensitive groups may be affected in North GA. visit to check current air quality conditions.
Expect foggy conditions with red sunrises/sunsets🌅.#gax pic.twitter.com/jMK6pdYEdQ
— NWS Atlanta (@NWSAtlanta) June 7, 2023
In northern areas, forecasters forecast smoke pollution and reduced air quality to persist at least through Thursday, with some health officials warning that conditions will get worse before they get better.
“At this time, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for the five boroughs,” the city’s mayor’s office wrote of New York, Eric Adams, in a statement released on Tuesday “While conditions are expected to improve temporarily tonight into tomorrow morning, they are expected to deteriorate further tomorrow afternoon and evening.”
Smoke and fog continue to roll in from the north. In this satellite loop, you can see a thicker plume over central NY and northern PA that will be changing over the next few hours. Expect reduced visibility, poor air quality and the smell of smoke. #NYwx #NJwx #CTwx pic.twitter.com/Fzeq1u20Wh
— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) June 7, 2023
Zachary Iscol, commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management, said visibility will return to very low Wednesday afternoon and evening, adding that officials expect the smoke to be a multi-day event. CBS New York reported Further north in the state, the National Weather Service office in Binghamton said in a bulletin that residents in the area should expect “extensive fog,” but added that “smoke is expected to ‘fade gradually on Thursday’.
Air quality is expected to improve as smoke pollution subsides toward the end of the week and into this weekend, Carfagno said.
“The smoke will continue to move with upper-level winds, dissipating somewhat as it moves away from its source,” he said. “But for people living downstream from these wildfires, both in Quebec and in the western Canadian provinces, wildfire smoke will continue to be a problem. And given this extreme and early onset of wildfire season in Canada, that scenario may be set again this summer.”
