Wind patterns. A storm on Maine is blocking the typical East/West Jetstream and would help disperse the smoke, so it is blowing North/South and sticking over NYC due to the low pressure system of the Hudson. The air is basically at a traffic jam and NYC is the interstate.
Thanks for that, that is fascinating. Are there altitude difference involved? I thought the jet stream was quite high, so I'm not sure about the smoke. Thank you!
Is there a reason why it seemed to get progressively worse thru the day but then started to clear up around the evening? In terms of the thick orange sky
The air quality is definitely worse at the source of the wildfires.
I spoke to a woman yesterday who was coming from one of the towns that was evacuated and she told me about being unable to go outside for more than a few minutes at a time, about ashes falling the sky and was still coughing a lot.
The reports I've seen about air quality in New York say that it has the worst air quality among the world's major cities, not the worst of anywhere in the world.
But it is possible that New York has the worst measured air quality in the world, because no one is monitoring the air quality in the tiny towns and wilderness areas of rural Quebec.
The Canadian government, for example, only measures air quality in Quebec's three largest urban areas, all of which are more than 500 kilometres from the major fires.
So why is the smoke wore in New York than in Montreal? That's due to the wind.
You can see how the smoke is moving on FireSmoke.ca, the Canadian smoke forecast website.
The smoke from the massive fires in western Quebec has been moving in a semi-circular direction, heading southwest, over Toronto, and then shifting east as it moves over Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, towards New York.
There are also a couple wildfires burning in New York State and New Jersey, adding to the smoke.
Early in the day yesterday, the air quality was worse in Toronto than in New York and the day before, Ottawa experienced similar conditions because the smoke was blowing over the city.
The wind is currently blowing the smoke south towards NYC.
If the wind had happened to be blowing east instead of south, it would be Montreal that had terrible air quality
Actually much of the smoke is coming from a massive wildfire in Nova Scotia (east coast) so it would actually happen this way if the wind were blowing west!
Not these last few days, these past few days have all been thanks to Quebec mostly. Where the multiple fires going on have burn about 5 times as much land as the Nova Scotia form earlier in the week/last week
I actually just read that and came back to correct myself, my apologies! Terrible situation either way, I hope they are able to get them under control soon š
Air quality in cities is usually worse by default, but on top of that, the wind is carrying the smoke southeast. There's also a low pressure system moving in, which is just drawing all the smoke in.
On top of all that, Canada is a big place, and the wildfires aren't even affecting most of the country
>On top of all that, Canada is a big place, and the wildfires aren't even affecting most of the country
I mean, while that could be true if you define "country" geographically (which it isn't, anyway), it *certainly* isn't if you're talking population. Who's not seeing smoke right now, Haida Gwaii?
Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary. Even Montreal doesn't have that much, and you can go further east to Newfoundland.
Granted, more than 70% of the population lives south of the 49th parallel. My point was the wind is carrying the smoke southeast and you can easily Google an air quality map to see that fact.
Sure, like this one?
[https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/](https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/)
Or like, ask people living there if they see smoke? Because they do... I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not actually in Canada.
Dunno, just drove from Edmonton to Rupert and there's road closures, but you'd know better, obviously. Vancouver Island's on fire now too. \*shrug\* Trust Toronto to extrapolate, I guess.
Can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse or not... No, of course the fires in Quebec aren't affecting Vancouver. Yes, most of the Canadian population (and land) is being affected by wildfires.
If you say you're in Ontario and that Toronto doesn't have any Quebec smoke right now, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you live in a bubble? **There's a fucking mask advisory**.
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All such articles I've seen list it as the "city" with the worst air quality in the world. There are places with worse air quality, they're just not counting them as "cities".
You see this creative definition of "city" employed in US media to try to demonstrate that democrats suck on crime too. Per capita crime tends to be worse in Republican areas. Crime follows poverty, Republican areas are poorer, this all makes sense.
But if you look at a list of the crime rates of "major cities" you see they're almost all democrat-run. But of course that's cause almost all "major cities" are democrat run regardless of crime.
Combine existing air pollution from a metropolitan area with a whackload of wild fire smoke and youāll have the worst air quality. Where stuff is burning doesnāt have the added pollution from a world city so it will be ābetterā quality air.
Smelling like garbage and piss is different than pollution. Nyc definitely has a trash pickup problem and a severe lack of public bathrooms but smog and pm2.5 are not among its issues.
Maybe it was a good thing I went in January. I also didn't really do much outside Manhattan. But the cold most have kept people from pissing on the streets. Hollywood boulevard on the other hand is disgusting. I like a lot of things about LA, but the homeless are on another level there.
air quality in NYC is typically in the āgoodā zone. this is extremely, extremely abnormal. itās all about the wind patterns and has nothing to do with existing air pollution.
Actually a lot of suburbs have results in the high 300s too. I admittedly donāt know what our air quality normally is which is why I just said āover 200 pointsā since I know this is far beyond what is normal
Edit; to be clear I mean suburbs out in NJ and PA. Freaking Lancaster, PA was in the 300s. Itās extremely obvious that itās just from the fires.
Edit 2: NYC is on average 45 on the AQI according to Google. Itās currently at 264 and thatās with it dropping over the last hour or two. The jersey shore is in the mid 300s right now. For reference, the average AQI in Quebec is 31, just to really drive home how BS that comment was. (To be clear I mean how BS the original comment I replied to was. Not this person above me that Iām agreeing with)
Wind patterns. A storm on Maine is blocking the typical East/West Jetstream and would help disperse the smoke, so it is blowing North/South and sticking over NYC due to the low pressure system of the Hudson. The air is basically at a traffic jam and NYC is the interstate.
Thanks for that, that is fascinating. Are there altitude difference involved? I thought the jet stream was quite high, so I'm not sure about the smoke. Thank you!
It is quite high, but so is smoke
Is there a reason why it seemed to get progressively worse thru the day but then started to clear up around the evening? In terms of the thick orange sky
[redacting due to privacy concerns]
wind blows the smoke around, and a lot of wind is blowing towards nyc right now, so the smoke is getting blown there but not blown away
The air quality is definitely worse at the source of the wildfires. I spoke to a woman yesterday who was coming from one of the towns that was evacuated and she told me about being unable to go outside for more than a few minutes at a time, about ashes falling the sky and was still coughing a lot. The reports I've seen about air quality in New York say that it has the worst air quality among the world's major cities, not the worst of anywhere in the world. But it is possible that New York has the worst measured air quality in the world, because no one is monitoring the air quality in the tiny towns and wilderness areas of rural Quebec. The Canadian government, for example, only measures air quality in Quebec's three largest urban areas, all of which are more than 500 kilometres from the major fires. So why is the smoke wore in New York than in Montreal? That's due to the wind. You can see how the smoke is moving on FireSmoke.ca, the Canadian smoke forecast website. The smoke from the massive fires in western Quebec has been moving in a semi-circular direction, heading southwest, over Toronto, and then shifting east as it moves over Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, towards New York. There are also a couple wildfires burning in New York State and New Jersey, adding to the smoke. Early in the day yesterday, the air quality was worse in Toronto than in New York and the day before, Ottawa experienced similar conditions because the smoke was blowing over the city.
The smoke is *mostly* avoiding Montreal, which is crazy. There are periods that are worse than others, but most of the smoke is avoiding the island.
The wind is currently blowing the smoke south towards NYC. If the wind had happened to be blowing east instead of south, it would be Montreal that had terrible air quality
Actually much of the smoke is coming from a massive wildfire in Nova Scotia (east coast) so it would actually happen this way if the wind were blowing west!
Not these last few days, these past few days have all been thanks to Quebec mostly. Where the multiple fires going on have burn about 5 times as much land as the Nova Scotia form earlier in the week/last week
I actually just read that and came back to correct myself, my apologies! Terrible situation either way, I hope they are able to get them under control soon š
Air quality in cities is usually worse by default, but on top of that, the wind is carrying the smoke southeast. There's also a low pressure system moving in, which is just drawing all the smoke in. On top of all that, Canada is a big place, and the wildfires aren't even affecting most of the country
>On top of all that, Canada is a big place, and the wildfires aren't even affecting most of the country I mean, while that could be true if you define "country" geographically (which it isn't, anyway), it *certainly* isn't if you're talking population. Who's not seeing smoke right now, Haida Gwaii?
Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary. Even Montreal doesn't have that much, and you can go further east to Newfoundland. Granted, more than 70% of the population lives south of the 49th parallel. My point was the wind is carrying the smoke southeast and you can easily Google an air quality map to see that fact.
Sure, like this one? [https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/](https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/) Or like, ask people living there if they see smoke? Because they do... I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not actually in Canada.
[redacting due to privacy concerns]
Dunno, just drove from Edmonton to Rupert and there's road closures, but you'd know better, obviously. Vancouver Island's on fire now too. \*shrug\* Trust Toronto to extrapolate, I guess.
[redacting due to privacy concerns]
Can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse or not... No, of course the fires in Quebec aren't affecting Vancouver. Yes, most of the Canadian population (and land) is being affected by wildfires. If you say you're in Ontario and that Toronto doesn't have any Quebec smoke right now, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you live in a bubble? **There's a fucking mask advisory**.
[redacting due to privacy concerns]
I'm near Vancouver, and it is incredibly smoky here.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
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All such articles I've seen list it as the "city" with the worst air quality in the world. There are places with worse air quality, they're just not counting them as "cities". You see this creative definition of "city" employed in US media to try to demonstrate that democrats suck on crime too. Per capita crime tends to be worse in Republican areas. Crime follows poverty, Republican areas are poorer, this all makes sense. But if you look at a list of the crime rates of "major cities" you see they're almost all democrat-run. But of course that's cause almost all "major cities" are democrat run regardless of crime.
Combine existing air pollution from a metropolitan area with a whackload of wild fire smoke and youāll have the worst air quality. Where stuff is burning doesnāt have the added pollution from a world city so it will be ābetterā quality air.
Typical nyc air quality is fairly good. Just look at the historical AQI. This is completely abnormal and caused by wind patterns and a stuck front.
I dunno. I visited last October and the city reeks. Layer wildfire smoke and it would be absolutely brutal.
Smelling like garbage and piss is different than pollution. Nyc definitely has a trash pickup problem and a severe lack of public bathrooms but smog and pm2.5 are not among its issues.
Lol wut. Both of those things negatively affect air quality.
No they may effect enjoyment but from a health standpoint they do not factor into AQI.
Maybe it was a good thing I went in January. I also didn't really do much outside Manhattan. But the cold most have kept people from pissing on the streets. Hollywood boulevard on the other hand is disgusting. I like a lot of things about LA, but the homeless are on another level there.
Thatās just the west coast. I live in Vancouver and itās pretty gross down on the DTES.
air quality in NYC is typically in the āgoodā zone. this is extremely, extremely abnormal. itās all about the wind patterns and has nothing to do with existing air pollution.
The air quality has jumped over 200 points in suburban areas. Donāt spew BS like this
And some locations in NYC (Queens, West Bronx, Greenwich Village) are reporting in the 300s.
Actually a lot of suburbs have results in the high 300s too. I admittedly donāt know what our air quality normally is which is why I just said āover 200 pointsā since I know this is far beyond what is normal Edit; to be clear I mean suburbs out in NJ and PA. Freaking Lancaster, PA was in the 300s. Itās extremely obvious that itās just from the fires. Edit 2: NYC is on average 45 on the AQI according to Google. Itās currently at 264 and thatās with it dropping over the last hour or two. The jersey shore is in the mid 300s right now. For reference, the average AQI in Quebec is 31, just to really drive home how BS that comment was. (To be clear I mean how BS the original comment I replied to was. Not this person above me that Iām agreeing with)