Photo: Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory / Courtesy
The scope and severity of the air pollution of the smoke event induced by the forest fires in Canada that has engulfed the corridor from New York to Washington DC, in the northeastern United States, has surprised millions of people and meteorologists and climate scientists.
Smoke haze continues to spread across the northeastern United States, and air quality in affected cities remains unhealthy, a situation that is expected to last several days.
Approximately 75 million residents remain on alert for the risk of inhaling potentially harmful air by the forest fires in Canada, which have spread a cloud of smoke visibly detected by NASA satellites.
NASA explained that although smoke from the Canadian wildfires often passes into the United States several times in the summer, it usually goes undetected because it is relatively high in the atmosphere and because winds often move the smoke eastward and out to sea.
This is not the case now, because a weather phenomenon known as a “coastal low pressure” has caused smoke to drift toward the southern and eastern US, degrading surface-level air quality that Millions of people breathe.
“Surface smoke contamination from New York to the DC region is the most significant since July 2002, when a similar event occurred,” said NASA scientist Ryan Stauffer.
Biden calls for protection from fire smoke
President Joe Biden called on the population to regularly check the air quality where they are: “You can find the current air quality and updated public health guidance in your area at http://AirNow.gov.” Biden said in a statement.
“Stay safe and follow the instructions of your local officials,” said President Biden, saying that what happened is “one more reminder of the impacts of climate change.”
After the unusual images published on Wednesday of iconic buildings such as the Empire State Building surrounded by a cloud of orange smoke, the Capitol in Washington woke up this Thursday mired in haze.
In a press conference, the mayor of the capital, Muriel Bowser, confirmed that the city raised today to the purple alert level, the highest and recommended that the population not stay outside and, if they need to, wear a mask.
When will air quality start to improve?
According to the director of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA), Christopher Rodriguez, It won’t be until late on Friday that the air quality starts to “significantly improve,” thanks to the winds will change.
Air quality in New York began to improve slightly Thursday morning, though still at a “very unhealthy” level 5 out of 6.
Philadelphia and Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, and other large cities such as Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati or Indianapolis are also the most affected on Thursday.
Visibility problems caused by the smoke covering the skies in the region led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to temporarily halt flights to Philadelphia and LaGuardia and delay all those to Newark.
In Canada, although air quality improved early Thursday, the Weather Service forecast that the indicator will drop back to “high risk” levels in cities like Toronto throughout the day. There are around 400 wildfires still burning in the country and almost half are out of control.
Biden insisted this Thursday on his offer to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of his “unconditional support” to respond to the fires and recalled that more than 600 American firefighters have already been deployed in the area.
The latest data from the Canadian authorities indicate that since January the flames have consumed 3.8 million hectares of forest, when the average since 1990 is that forest fires burn a total of 2.5 million hectares per year.
Keep reading:
– The disturbing images of the orange sky of New York due to the cloud of smoke coming from Canada
– Videos showed the “apocalyptic panorama” that caused the smoke that invades the northeast of the United States.
– The map showing the smoke cloud that covers North America and generates a health alert for tens of millions of people