By late afternoon, the Air Quality Index for New York City had reached 170, well above average. The concentration of microscopic particulate pollution called PM2.5 was nine times above exposure recommendations from the World Health Organization. In a statement, the Department of Environmental Conservation noted that while it was not rare for traveling wildfire smoke to reach the New York region, the smoke usually stayed high in the atmosphere. But in this case, “data showed that the smoke is extending down to the ground level,” since much of it is coming from relatively nearby fires in western Ontario and eastern Manitoba.
If you click on my "sunrise" tag, you'll see the series of red suns we've had lately. Ordinarily, once the sun becomes partly visible, you can't keep looking at it and you can't get a good photograph of it. But lately, I've been watching and photographing the sun minutes after it's fully visible.
Here's what Madison looks like this morning. I can see that NYC is far worse off with an Air Quality Index of 170, but this 83 for us is really unusual. I'm used to seeing us fully in the green:
Posts
1 comment:
Temujin writes:
"Also- much of the northwest- both in Canada and the US- is fighting a number of wildfires. Our kids are out in Washington. In the mid-state region there are wildfires just across a river from them. Their ari smells of it constantly. It's hot and dry. People think of Seattle when they think of Washington. Seattle is wet, moist, and green. But the mid-state region is a high plains desert type of environment. Mountainous, dry, and next week when we're out there visiting, over 100 degrees each day.
"And just north of there, in BC, there are so many wildfires raging through the mountains that the Canadian National Railway (CN) has limited runs from the coast (Vancouver) across to Toronto (Ontario). Which means that shipments already late in getting into the Port of Vancouver are held up in port or in holding yards full of containers, for more weeks. Quite a run we're all still having."
Post a Comment