NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, holding up flights at major airports, postponing Major League Baseball games and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.

My sister Shannon sent this in from Long Island.
You can hear her tell you that you can usually see Connecticut across the sound.
Not today pic.twitter.com/eHpCYO1Fmw
— Aubrey Urbanowicz (@WHSVaubs) June 7, 2023

Canadian officials asked other countries for additional help fighting more than 400 blazes nationwide that already have displaced 20,000 people. Air with hazardous levels of pollution extended into the New York metropolitan area, central New York state and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Massive tongues of unhealthy air extended as far as North Carolina and Indiana, affecting millions of people.

“I can taste the air,” Dr. Ken Strumpf said in a Facebook post from Syracuse, New York, which was enveloped in an amber pall. The smoke, he later said by phone, even made him a bit dizzy.

The air quality index, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency metric for air pollution, exceeded a staggering 400 at times in Syracuse, New York City and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. A level of 50 or under is considered good; anything over 300 is considered “hazardous,” when even healthy people are advised to curtail outdoor physical activity.

This is the concern for Thursday morning- thick smoke and haze to reduce air quality locally and visibility.
If you're sensitive or have breathing issues, limit time outside. We should see improvements into the afternoon but potentially another plume early Friday pic.twitter.com/aDMc0Vf2aJ
— Aubrey Urbanowicz (@WHSVaubs) June 8, 2023

LOCAL LINKS

For our local smoke forecast as well as air quality information, click this link:

Smoke Forecast and Air Quality Informatiom

The mountains barely visible at times with thick haze

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