New York City's poor air quality set to worsen on Canada fire smoke

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Wildfire smoke from blazes burning in the Canadian Prairies has drifted across New York, contributing to air-quality alerts that warn of breathing problems for children and older adults.

Environmental agencies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine issued safety advisories that are in effect from 11 a.m. local time Wednesday into late evening. The smoke is visible across the region as a high haze and has already blanketed the US Midwest, including Chicago and Minneapolis.

Wednesday’s safety alerts are mostly linked to urban pollution, but the smoke will contribute to a dip in air quality in the Northeast, said Joe Wegman, a meteorologist at the US Weather Prediction Center. It’s expected to remain visible in the sky until rain arrives later in the week, he added.

In addition to the eastern US, the smoke from the fires has caused air quality to drop to unhealthy levels in parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta, where fires are burning, as well as in Wisconsin, according to AirNow.gov.

Air quality in a wide area of the eastern US, as well as parts of Ontario and western Quebec, has dropped to moderate levels, according to the US government website, which also tracks data from Canada and Mexico.

Canada’s fires have shut down oil production and forced evacuations, although the threat has stabilized as rain slowed the growth of some blazes. Still, the wildfire season in Alberta province is shaping up to be one of the most active in recent years, threatening crude output.