A dense mass of smoke containing harmful lung-penetrating particles has begun pouring over the US border from Canada.
The giant plume is sweeping across the Upper Midwest and into the Northeast this week, driven by jet streams carrying smoke from large wildfires burning in northern Ontario.
Weather experts believe Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan will see the densest smoke filling the air on Wednesday, and the plume will quickly move on to Pennsylvania, New York and the entire New England area by Thursday.
Dan DePodwin, AccuWeather’s vice president of forecasting, told the Daily Mail that major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Philadelphia could start to see air quality affected on Wednesday and Thursday.
‘Northern Michigan, maybe Western New York, those types of spots at this point seem most favorable to experience at least a time of poor air quality. And then places farther east, like Boston, some of the major cities in the northeast,’ DePodwin predicted.
Officials have warned that wildfire smoke contains fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, which consists of microscopic particles of toxic compounds, small enough to penetrate human tissue and cause breathing issues.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has connected breathing in PM2.5 to multiple health issues, including aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks and premature death for those with heart and lung disease.
‘If the visibility starts to really be reduced and you can really smell the smoke, that’s a situation that becomes unhealthy. You want to be spending indoor time, especially if you’re a sensitive group, or even wearing a mask outside is something that can be done in those situations if you have to be outside and avoiding strenuous activity,’ DePodwin cautioned.
The National Weather Service has warned that millions of Americans could see reduced air quality this week due to Canadian wildfires
Wildfires in Canada burn millions of acres of forest each year in Canada, with an intense season in 2023
Other states expected to see the impact of the wildfire smoke include parts of New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois – especially in the Chicago area.
The effects of the Canadian wildfires were already beginning to flow over the border at the start of the week, but the intensity is expected to increase dramatically within hours.
The National Weather Service’s (NWS) office in New York posted on Tuesday: ‘Smell smoke this morning? It’s coming from a wildfire outbreak in Ontario.
‘While it should not impact air quality much today, smoke at the surface could increase Wednesday into Thursday, potentially reducing visibilities and air quality.’
More than 800 active wildfires have been burning across Canada this summer, particularly in the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
DePodwin noted that two million acres have already burned down in Canada this year, which is more than the total for some entire wildfire seasons in the country.
While he said that climate change may play a role in the increasing number of wildfires throughout Canada in recent years, DePodwin pointed out that the nation’s lack of fire and land management efforts was causing plumes of smoke to reach the US.
‘Because a lot of Canada is very rural, in many parts of the country, they don’t actively fight fires, because there is very little to no population nearby,’ the AccuWeather forecaster explained.
At least 13 states could see the impact of Canadian wildfire smoke this week
Wildfires in 2023 caused severe environmental effects throughout the US, including in New York City
‘So, the fires burn until they go out themselves, or they do minimal fire suppression. So that is part of it, that is occurring here.’
While US air quality is expected to be impacted this week, DePodwin said the effects will likely be far less visible compared to 2023, when the skies over several states turned orange with smoke-filled pollutants.
That year, 40 million acres of forests burned down across Canada in a historic wildfire season.
‘It would be difficult to repeat 2023 again. However, that same poor air quality, where it becomes unhealthy or very unhealthy, that type of air quality, we’re seeing that in Canada near the fires where they’re burning now,’ DePodwin explained.
‘You could have that type of poor air quality in at least parts of the northeastern Great Lakes here through the middle of the week, probably through about Thursday, we could see pockets of that,’ he continued.
DePodwin added that wildfires go through cycles, pouring out massive amounts of smoke and then stopping for a time, meaning the impact on US air quality can be very unpredictable from hour to hour.
‘Some of the tools we use suggest that there could be poor air quality in a lot of places like Buffalo, maybe New York City, Albany, maybe even down to Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday,’ he said.
‘I think a safe bet at this point would be to say that it’s probably prudent to plan for a day or two of at least some reduction of air quality, and it’s not out of the question that it becomes unhealthy.’
EPA tracking data has been monitoring roughly 800 active wildfires across Canada this summer
AccuWeather vice president of forecasting Dan DePodwin
How unhealthy, DePodwin said, will depend on how low the smoke drops in the atmosphere.
Entering Wednesday, most of the smoke was high up, creating hazy or milky-looking sunshine and making sunrises and sunsets more colorful and vivid.
That does not affect air quality much at ground level.
When the smoke mixes down closer to the surface, however, that is when air quality can get worse.
As smoke pours into the Northeast this week, the region has already been dealing with extreme heat and humidity caused by a massive heat dome affecting 25 states.
While the thick air is not expected to directly make the smoky conditions worse for your health, DePodwin noted that any area where the smoke reaches ground level will feel even worse during the summer heatwave.
‘A very hot day and a very humid day are already not very comfortable. If you then add near-surface smoke that reduces air quality and visibility and smells not great, that’s going to even feel grittier and just not pleasant. It’s going to make you feel even more unpleasant, obviously.’
