Dense smoke from the fires in Canada, accompanied by an intense burning smell, darkened New York and much of the northeastern United States on Tuesday and Wednesday. Visibility in the Big Apple was almost completely reduced (impossible to see landmarks as representative as the pinnacle of the Empire State Building, still visible), while the sky took on a yellowish color, typical of sandstorms under other latitudes. Many states have issued alerts for poor air quality, which can last for days. As social media fills with snaps of New York and other smoky cities.

Meteorological authorities have warned that those most sensitive to poor air quality, such as lung and heart patients, children and the elderly, should limit their outdoor activities. New York Mayor Eric Adams recalled on Twitter the need to cut exposure to “barely necessary” in the case of patients with heart or lung pathologies. Masks have returned to the streets, as in times of a pandemic. Similar alerts are in effect in some counties in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont and also further south in New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the federal capital, Washington.

Tuesday dawned in the Big Apple with light rain, followed by clear sunny rain, through early afternoon skies, bright as the calendar prepares to hit the summer solstice and , with it, on the longest days of the year, it was dyed a coppery yellow, dotted with red in some parts of the city. Visibility from bridges connecting New Jersey and its sister state, as well as Manhattan with Brooklyn and Queens, was near zero by mid-afternoon, appearing between the mist and fog of stormy days. Things did not improve on Wednesday. “It’s like a barbecue,” a worker at a construction site in the South Bronx said Wednesday of the smell of smoke.

For much of Wednesday, the air quality index in Syracuse, upstate New York, was above 400 points, According to the official AirNow website, whose scale is considered unhealthy when the level, established from the particles in the air, exceeds 100 points and dangerous if it exceeds 300. The maps of said site show that the patch of air pollution reaches states as far away as Florida or Texas, and seriously affecting almost the entire northeast of the country.

New York’s air quality hit its worst levels since the 1960s on Tuesday night, authorities said, and was the worst among the world’s major cities, displacing cities like Jakarta or New Delhi, which usually top the list. list. “There is no blueprint or manual for this type of problem,” Adams (D) said at a press conference, in which he said it was a situation “without previous”.

Smoke pollution has started to cause delays and cancellations of some flights, although air traffic has not been seriously affected so far.

According to the Canadian Inter-Agency Wildfire Center, there were more than 400 active wildfires in Canada as of Tuesday, adding to an already intense fire season that is expected to worsen. More than 200 of the fires were out of control, according to the aforementioned agency. By Monday, more than 26,000 Canadians had been evacuated from their homes due to the fires.

Canadian authorities say this is the worst wildfire season in the country’s history. It started early, on drier ground than usual, and picked up speed very quickly, straining firefighting resources across the country, according to fire and environment officials. Smoke from blazes in various parts of the country has been drifting towards the United States since last month, but intensified with a recent wave of fires in Quebec, where more than 100 were burning and were considered out of control on Tuesday.

This isn’t the first time smoke from the Canadian fires has reached the northeastern United States, but it’s the first day of apocalyptic overtones. Sites using interactive cameras, such as EarthCam, posted surreal images throughout the afternoon, in which the jagged silhouette of New York’s skyscrapers, their famous skyline, is truncated by haze. While on normal days a radius of several miles can be seen from any high point, by Tuesday blindness had vanished over New York.

Schools in several states have canceled sports and other outdoor activities, moving recess and lunchtime indoors, the AP reports. Live horse racing was canceled Wednesday and Thursday at Delaware Park Wilmington. The organizers of Global Running Day, a virtual 5k run and celebration of running, posted a warning on its website advising participants to monitor the air quality in their cities and modify their race plans accordingly.

Some political rallies, from Manhattan to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, have been moved indoors or postponed, and striking Hollywood screenwriters have been removed from picket lines in the New York metropolitan area.

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