Canadian wildfire smoke remains draped over the New York metro area, but some clear skies are on the horizon.
The National Weather Service, along with state environmental officials in New York, re-issued an air quality alert Friday afternoon that covers New York City, Long Island and the Mid-Hudson region. This warning currently runs through Saturday night, and it cautions people in sensitive groups to wear masks and limit outdoor activity as the air quality index, or AQI, could surpass 100.
“The sensitive folks — those most vulnerable, the seniors, very young, those perhaps with some pre-existing respiratory problems, asthma, should probably limit their time outdoors; certainly any strenuous activities outdoors,” said Dominic Ramunni with the National Weather Service.
As more smoke arrived Thursday afternoon, the AQI moved from this orange zone to red — or “unhealthy” for some members of the general public. The air quality stayed there overnight and through Friday morning.
That’s also when the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the NWS extended a similar warning for the Garden State. Air quality has been consistently worse there compared to New York City. The New Jersey advisory runs through Friday night. It covers most of the state — stretching from the northeast, including Essex, Bergen, Union and Passaic counties, down to Cape May.
But a near-surface smoke forecast, compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicts the air will start to clear as afternoon moves into evening on Friday.
Some brief stints of haze may sweep through Saturday, but if the smoke prediction holds, those periods will not be as bad as ones in recent days.
The AQI forecast, which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted Friday afternoon, called for a return to orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) for the eastern portions of New York and a drop to moderate for central and western locales.
Weather forecasts also call for rain across the region late Saturday and Sunday, and the precipitation could counterbalance the influx of smoke by pushing particulate matter out of the air. This is called wet deposition.
While wildfires continued to burn in Canada this week, blankets of smoke plagued the Midwest before creeping into the East Coast. Since Monday, Hochul has issued major warnings for Western New York. The area experienced a short reprieve on Thursday, but the AQI has rebounded to “unhealthy” for the broader general public, not just sensitive groups.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams also advised residents to stay indoors and wear KN95 or N95 masks when outdoors.
These widgets show real-time estimates (updated hourly) of the air quality index for select areas in the region, based on data compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow tracker:
The advisories continue a springtime trend caused by the Canadian wildfires. Earlier in June, NYC’s air quality was as bad as smoking a pack-and-a-half of cigarettes if you spent the day working outside.
Canada is experiencing its worst wildfire season on record. Already roughly 29,000 square miles of forest have burned across eastern and western parts of the country. Much of the country is under a continued forecast for extreme to above average fire conditions.
Brittany Kriegstein and Nsikan Akpan contributed reporting.
