Smoke from wildfires burning hundreds of kilometres away in Canada is choking most of the Northeastern United States including New York City which is currently more polluted than any other major world city.
Toxic smoke also, enveloped George Washington Bridge (connecting New Jersey and New York City) due to uncontrolled wildfires across Canada.
WATCH:
An ominous orange haze crept over New York City as all five boroughs were placed under an air quality alert until Thursday morning, June 8 due to wind patterns pushing smoke south from more than 150 forest fires in Quebec — 110 of which have been deemed out of control.
Unhealthy air and smoke conditions are expected to linger over the five boroughs until Sunday. New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged New Yorkers with heart or breathing conditions to “limit outdoor activities to the absolute necessities.”
As a dim orange haze settled over the boroughs, IQAir said the city had surpassed the pollution levels of New Delhi and has air quality described as hazardous.
Update from New York City | EarthCam
IQair’s Air Quality Index reached 342 on Wednesday, June 7— measured on a scale of 0 to 500, with higher numbers indicating a worse score. This score was worse than New Delhi’s 190 and surpassed the normal average of 100.
Forecasters said the air has been the worst since the 1980s, surpassing the poorness from 9/11.
New York City’s air is currently more polluted than most of the world’s major cities as thick smoke from Canadian wildfires burning hundreds of miles away | EarthCam
Once the storm system from the west starts to come in, it is going to change the wind direction. Once the wind direction changes, the smoke will be unable to come down into parts of the northeast and mid-Atlantic.
Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index put Ottawa in category 10+, which is the worst level and indicates a high risk.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Wednesday, June 7 flights bound for LaGuardia Airport in New York City were halted due to wildfire smoke.
(With inputs from agencies)
