Smoke from the Canadian wildfires has spread across much of the eastern half of the United States, affecting air quality in major metro areas along the northern half of the eastern seaboard and most of the Northeast.
Social media users have been posting pictures of the skies in New York and elsewhere, showing a dystopian scene that climate scientists say will become more frequent in the coming years due to climate change.
Air quality alerts have been issued for multiple cities, including Baltimore, Maryland, Boston, Massachusetts and Burlington, Vermont.
But those aren’t the only areas affected, with smoke significantly damaging the air quality in cities as far away as Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Washington, DC.
But the worst air quality stretched from western New York to Quebec and Ontario. Those areas had “code-orange” and “code-purple” alerts, indicating the air quality was hazardous for the general population and not just vulnerable individuals.
The air quality is expected to get worse on Wednesday, with an even larger smoke cloud expected to move south from Canada on the tail of a cold front. Things could improve over the weekend with the wind expected to move in a northwesterly direction on Friday; however, that relief is dependent on local fires not breaking out.
There are dry conditions in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, increasing the risk of local fires which could exacerbate the problem. Dry thunderstorms, which do not carry much rain, are expected in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, greatly increasing that risk.
Wildfires are not uncommon in Canada during the summer, but they typically begin July or later. 2023 has already far surpassed the average amount burned in a year, 5.18 million acres, and summer has not yet officially begun.