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For the second straight day, thin layers of smoke from wildfires that are burning in western Canada are drifting into the upper atmosphere and creating hazy skies as far away as New Jersey and New York.
The National Weather Service’s New York regional office said hazy, smoky skies were visible Thursday morning on EarthCam cameras aimed at Manhattan, Montauk on eastern Long Island in New York and in New London, Connecticut.
“The smoke is coming from wildfires in Canada may linger into tomorrow before the arrival of rain this weekend,” the weather service noted in a social media post on X.
The weather service’s main forecast office in New Jersey said some light haze was spotted Thursday morning, but so far it’s not causing any concerns with air quality or aircraft visibility — issues that arose last summer when heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted as far down as the ground in the Garden State.
“I noticed a little (haze) this morning,“ said Mike Silva, a meteorologist at the weather service’s New Jersey office. “It’s nothing like last year.”
Silva said the smoke is very high up in the atmosphere, so “it might get confused for cirrus clouds.”
“Some people might catch the smell if they are sensitive enough,” he added.
As of late Thursday morning, the air quality across most of New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia was classified as “moderate,” with index numbers ranging from 51 to 100, according to a map from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If the air quality index rises to 101 to 150, sensitive people with breathing issues would be advised to limit outdoor activities.
Last summer, when huge numbers of wildfires were burning in eastern Canada, thick plumes of smoke drifted south into many areas of New Jersey and New York, triggering widespread air quality alerts and some flight restrictions. On some days, the smoke drifted all the way down to the ground.
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