Millions of people in North America are under air quality advisories as the wildfires raging across Canada have prompted evacuations, disrupted air travel and caused smoky, apocalyptic skies even thousands of miles from the blazes.
The US National Weather Service extended air quality watches Thursday for the East Coast from New England to South Carolina, as well as parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
Health officials in more than a dozen US states also warned residents that spending time outdoors could cause breathing problems due to high levels of fine particles in the atmosphere.
Canada is experiencing the worst start in recorded wildfire history, experts said, with fires reported in nearly every province and territory in the country since May.
more than 400 canadian wildfires are still burning, particularly in the eastern province of Quebec, where approximately 150 fires have been reported as of Thursday morning and some 13,500 people have been forced to evacuate.
However, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said during an evening news conference that the situation was “stable” and no deaths or serious injuries had been reported so far.
He added, however, that it would be several more days before the evacuees could go home.
“It remains exceptional given the intensity of the fires (that), to date, there has been no loss of life or serious injuries. That’s the most important thing, so continue to be careful,” Legault told reporters in Quebec City.
unhealthy air quality
The wildfires have brought orange-tinged skies to major Canadian and American metropolises, including New York City, where the iconic skyline was obscured earlier this week due to thick smoke and smog.
Briefly Thursday, New York City’s air once again ranked as the most polluted of any major city in the world, reaching an overall reading of 178 on the Air Quality Index (AQI).
The AQI measures five main pollutants, including particulates produced by fires, with readings above 100 classified as “unhealthy” while those above 300 are “dangerous”.
On Thursday morning, several readings also surpassed the 300 mark in the Washington, D.C., area, prompting local health authorities to declare “Code Purple” to warn residents of “very unhealthy air conditions.” related to forest fires.
“Smoke from the Canadian wildfires is causing poor air quality in the Washington, DC area and Northeast US. This problem is likely to continue or worsen through Friday,” Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, on Thursday afternoon, said “a milky haze” still hung over the Capitol.
“It will be a couple of days before this starts to clear up. At the moment, it stretches thousands of miles from Canada to South Carolina,” Fisher said.
canceled events
Haze and low visibility prompted aviation officials to halt inbound flights to major New York and Philadelphia airports from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as Ohio, for a second day Thursday. All flights to the Newark, New Jersey airport were also delayed.
In Washington, DC, the White House delayed its Pride Month event due to smoke, and the Washington Nationals baseball team postponed its afternoon game, becoming the latest sporting event affected by the fires.
Smoky conditions are likely to persist through Sunday, when a new storm system changes the direction of the prevailing winds, National Weather Service meteorologist Peter Mullinax said. It will also bring the chance of rain to parts of the US that are approaching dry conditions.
“Eventually we’re going to start to see more relief by the time we get there early next week when we start to see those southerly winds and push that smoke further north and out into the Atlantic,” Mullinax said.
Large amounts of smoke have been pouring into the eastern US since the fires in Quebec. Smoke from wildfires is degrading the quality of the air at surface level that tens of millions of people breathe.
Several NASA satellites are collecting data on the plumes: https://t.co/r2NhDht0Cq pic.twitter.com/kT7UUrZu7z
—NASA (@NASA) June 8, 2023
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said his administration was ready to provide additional support to help Canada respond to the fires.
The White House said in a statement that more than 600 firefighters and other personnel have been deployed to help their Canadian counterparts battle the flames, while more assistance is on the way.
“Yesterday I spoke with Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau and offered him any additional help Canada needs to rapidly accelerate efforts to put out these fires, particularly those in Quebec, where the fires are having the most direct impacts on American communities.” . biden said.
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