Destructive Halifax wildfires force widespread evacuations

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Hazardous air quality levels continue to overwhelm parts of the eastern United States today as a fresh wave of smoke from Canadian wildfires billowed across the border.

Major metro areas are expected to see unhealthy air quality levels for all age groups throughout the day, including in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., the National Weather Service said.

Officials have warned residents affected by the haze to stay indoors and wear masks outdoors.

FAA delays flights bound for Newark, grounds departures to Philadelphia
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday morning that it had delayed all flights bound for New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport nationwide. It also grounded departures to Philadelphia International Airport due to low visibility.

Schumer calls for more U.S. resources to help fight Canadian wildfires
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to direct resources to fighting the wildfires in Canada that have produced the heavy smoke affecting air quality on the East Coast of the United States.

“The best way to ensure the U.S. does not suffer another wave of wildfire air pollution is to contain these fires up in Canada as soon as possible,” he said on the Senate floor this morning, “That’s getting at the source, and that’s what we need to do.”

Schumer also said the letter calls on Vilsack to “double the number of personnel to mitigate the risk in the air for millions of Americans.”

“To walk through New York City yesterday was to walk on another planet,” he said, “The orange fog of wildfire smoke left our city unrecognizable.”

It's official: El Niño has begun
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed today that El Niño — a naturally occurring climate cycle that influences global temperatures, rainfall patterns and severe storm systems — is back.

What does that mean for wildfires? Canada is already experiencing an intense start to its wildfire season, and El Niño conditions could make matters worse. The weather pattern is typically associated with more volatile tropical storms and hotter, drier conditions across the northern parts of the United States and Canada.

Canadian officials have said that hot and dry conditions will likely persist into the summer months, increasing the risk of wildfires through August.

New Jersey governor calls poor air quality ‘unprecedented’ and ‘historic’
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the Canadian wildfire smog blanketing the Northeast an “unprecedented” event as he urged locals to stay home and avoid the outdoors.

“The widespread nature and uncommonly high levels of fine particulate concentrations reaching the unhealthy category is of a historic magnitude,” he said in a press conference this morning.

An air quality action day alert issued for todday was upgraded to the “unhealthy” category and the alert was extended to the end of tomorrow.

Murphy said the air quality index reached 226 in Jersey City at 7 a.m. and in South Jersey, it hit 285 — both within the unhealthy range.

An AQI at or below 100 is considered satisfactory, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's website AirNow.gov, but when it is above 100, air quality is considered unhealthy.

NYC mayor says there a chance for ‘significant improvement’ tomorrow

Brighter horizons and clearer skies could be around the corner for New Yorkers, Mayor Eric Adams said in a briefing this morning.

“As of right now, the smoke models are not indicating another large plume over the city, so there’s a chance for significant improvement by tomorrow morning and throughout the day tomorrow,” he said.

As for today, he said, forecasters are expecting “gradual improvement” through the early afternoon, but a “sea breeze this afternoon could push smoke back over the city.”

“Conditions along the immediate coast, and southern boroughs will likely be worse than in the northern parts of the city. We may see continued improvements later tonight and overnight as the wind becomes light and northerly,” Adams said.

As of 11:50 a.m., New York has the worst air quality in the world, according to the Swiss air monitoring site IQAir.

Wednesday was worst U.S. wildfire smoke day since 2006, Stanford analysis finds
Impacts from the smoke bedeviling the Eastern U.S. are the worst the country has seen in nearly two decades, according to analysis from a Stanford University research group.

The analysis calculated the amount of smoke exposure experienced per person in the United States, according to Marshall Burke, an associate professor of Earth system science at Stanford University.

The research group calculated that Wednesday’s smoke event was the worst since 2006. Tuesday’s smoke was the fourth-worst.

On both days, smoke exposure levels were not as high as they have reached in West Coast cities in the recent past, but the overall impact was greater because the smoke struck huge population centers like New York City.

“There’s no threshold of exposure to wildfire smoke above which we’re in trouble and below which we’re fine,” Burke said in a Wednesday interview. “All evidence suggests there’s no safe level of exposure.”

Burke said climate change will increase smoke risk in the Eastern United States, but that the magnitude of this event has surprised him. In the smoke, Burke said he sees the fingerprints of climate change, which has raised temperatures and made fire weather more likely in North American forests.

“This event had a climate trigger for sure. There were weeks of dry hot weather, first in western Canada and then in parts of eastern Canada that precipitated the growth of these wildfires,” Burke said. “It is a wake up call.”

I dont know what air quality numbers mean.

But yeah today here in Rockville Maryland its getting more visually noticeable. In fact I have been able to smell it for a couple days. There is always a diffuse burnt smell in the air. Sometimes a burnt wood smell, sometimes a kinda mix of burnt wood and burnt plastic smell.

TikTok vid showing how many fires all popped up across Quebec all at once:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM2rCrwUR/

As I live in Maryland, my phone is currently monitoring the temperature and air quality index displayed on the home screen.

Air quality has surpassed 200. When should I panic?

It means you should stay inside, close and seal your windows, run your air conditioners, and air filtration devices if you have them.

If you have to go outside wear a K95 or KN95 mask.