Unhealthy air in parts of the U.S. was forecast again on Friday due to smoke from Canadian wildfires wafting south by winds, though some improvement had begun.
Political IQ notes that blue was visible in the sky in New York City Friday for the first time since Tuesday, after the city had been blanketed by an orange haze that reached its peak around 2pm ET Wednesday.
The city had been deemed to have the worst air quality in the world on Wednesday, but by Friday it ranked as 15th worst, according to IQAir.com.
However, the National Weather Service warned that smoke from the wildfires would continue to cause “moderate to unhealthy air quality across parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley, and Midwest on Friday. Some improvement is expected this weekend.”
However, the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday had mostly lifted by Friday morning the ground stops and flight delays in the Eastern U.S. caused by “low visibility” earlier in the week.
As of Friday morning the EPA had last posted on Twitter an air quality advisory on Thursday evening. The agency suggested that local conditions could be checked using the @AirNow app or on the fire.airnow.gov website.
More than 430 active wildfires were raging across Canada as of Thursday, and as of Friday they had burned roughly 15 times the annual average of the past decade.
The fires started in late April in British Columbia and Alberta. So far, they have displaced more than 30,000 people, and shut down oil and gas production.
Some Canadian lawmakers are connecting the fires to climate change, including Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, who asserted, “Our weather is getting hotter and drier and this government isn’t ready for the danger that represents.”
At least one of the wildfires, in Quebec, has led to an arson investigation, though the cause for so many fires is yet to be determined.
PHOTO: Wildfire Haze in Philadelphia Wednesday
