4m ago / 12:36 PM UTC
Over 400 wildfires are blazing in Canada
The smoke taking over swathes of the U.S. is coming from Canada, where over 400 wildfires are burning, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fires Centre.
In Quebec, more than 150 forest fires were burning Tuesday with more than 110 considered out of control. The fires prompted evacuation orders in Chibougamau, Quebec, a remote town of about 7,500 Tuesday evening.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair called the situation “serious” and described images of the wildfire season “the most severe we have ever witnessed in Canada.”
“The current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity,” he added.
16m ago / 12:24 PM UTC
New Jersey Forest Fire Service warns about wildfire
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service warned Tuesday night about an uncontained wildfire.
The National Weather Service has warned that fire weather had been developing in the U.S., which can spark “dry thunderstorms” that can spark wildfires.
24m ago / 12:16 PM UTC
New York City had the worst air quality in the world Tuesday night
New York City had the worst air quality in the world Tuesday night as the Atlantic coast was blanketed in smoke and smog from the Canadian wildfires.
The city reached the top of the worst air quality chart on IQAir, a Swiss air monitoring company, around 9 p.m. Tuesday evening, with levels that exceeded the prior worst air quality event on record for the area in July 2002.
By Wednesday morning, New York docked down to second, after New Delhi, India.
City dwellers woke up to yet another hazy sky and a sun that blazed more red and orange than usual due to the smoke.
28m ago / 12:12 PM UTC
How poor air quality hurts your health
Poor air quality can be caused by any airborne “irritant” — a particle or substance in the air that is harmful to a person to breathe in, according to Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist at the Allergy & Asthma Network.
Many of the health issues people see from poor air quality, in general, can overlap with health issues people see from wildfire smoke, said Wynne Armand, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate director of the MGH Center for the Environment and Health.
28m ago / 12:12 PM UTC
98 million people under air quality alerts for wildfire smoke, ozone
Much of the nation will grapple with low air quality on Wednesday as wildfire smoke from Canada continues to pass over the U.S.
Parts of 18 states are under air quality alerts Wednesday morning from South Carolina to New Hampshire. Large metro areas under alerts include New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Another surge of significant smoke will move south Wednesday afternoon across the Northeast with the worst of the smoke expected in and around New York City from 3 to 9 p.m.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
