Haze from Canada fires returns to New York area

NEW YORK – Three weeks after Canadian wildfire smoke, propelled south by stiff winds,

blanketed New York City in an eerie, unhealthy haze

, a similar though potentially less severe smog had moved into the area by Thursday morning and threatened to linger into Friday.

Although air quality in the city and surrounding counties was generally good to moderate into Wednesday evening, state officials, anticipating the smoke’s arrival, extended a statewide air quality health advisory through midnight on Thursday.

“We expect that plume to move into the state a bit more quickly than it moves out,” Mr Basil Seggos, commissioner of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, said at a news briefing Wednesday.

The fresh warnings came as residents of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and other Midwestern cities experienced conditions similar to what New Yorkers confronted in early June, when a plume of smoke bathed the city in an acrid cloud over two days.

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York warned that conditions could deteriorate significantly as a result of soot and smoke particles thrown off by Canada’s worst wildfire season in decades continuing to drift east, carried along by the jet stream.

Air-quality levels, Ms Hochul said, were expected to range from “unhealthy for sensitive groups” – including children, older people and those who are pregnant or who have heart or lung disease – to “unhealthy” for everyone in parts of the state.

Central and western New York continued to be at the highest risk as of Wednesday, officials said.

It was possible, the governor added, that temporary spikes could push the air quality into “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” territory across the state. She and other officials recommended that residents check the air-quality index regularly and keep high-quality face masks handy when going outside.

“We’re urging New Yorkers to remain vigilant” and “take the necessary precautions to protect yourselves and your loved ones”, Ms Hochul said in a statement.

Warnings were also issued for Thursday in other parts of the North-east, including the entire state of Pennsylvania, and mid-Atlantic, including Washington, with vulnerable residents being encouraged to stay indoors.

As at June 7, fires in Canada had scorched more than 10 times the area burned by around the same time last year.

As of early Thursday, there were at least 500 active wildfires in the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. More than half were burning out of control.

Climate research suggests that heat and drought associated with global warming are major reasons behind the number of fires and their intensity.

As Mr David Brown, an air quality meteorologist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, noted, Canada’s wildfire season does not typically begin until early July, meaning the effect on air quality in the northern United States could persist for weeks at least. NYTIMES