More smoke will be headed into the New York area Friday though the weekend, but meteorologists say it will stay at a high level and won’t come anything close to the orange phenomenon the New York area experienced last week.
Meteorologist Bill Goodman from the National Weather Service station on Long Island said the agency is tracking a “plume of smoke” from the Canadian wildfires that’s coming south.
For the most part, it will stay about 6,000 feet above ground level— causing hazy skies and red sunrises. Some of the smoke will already be visible on Friday morning.
The highest concentration of smoke should be over New York on Saturday, towards the later afternoon and evening, Goodman said.
Caution is advisable, but panic is not.
“If you’re sensitive to smoke, if you have respiratory issues or heart issues, it may be good to avoid being outside,” Goodman said, noting that the Air Quality Index could climb to levels over 100 for just those few hours. By comparison, on Wednesday of last week, the AQI hit 484 at its peak.
He emphasized that the apocalyptic smog of last week is not in this weekend’s forecast.
“That was really a rare combination of events that led to that smoke being very concentrated. We don’t see anything like that happening Saturday afternoon or night,” he said.
As far as when the smoke will clear out again, it’s hard to say.
“The trajectory is a little uncertain,” Goodman said. “I’ve seen model forecasts disagreeing on exactly where the most concentrated smoke is going to go. It’s very sensitive to whatever the winds happen to do during that time frame.”
The forecast for Friday evening also calls for rain, some of which will continue into Saturday and could also help clear the air.
Goodman struck an optimistic note about local air quality in New York, compared to when he was a kid growing up in the Bronx in the 1970s.
“The forecast would be ‘hazy hot and humid.’ Smog would be a frequent occurrence in the city…
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