Canadian wildfire smoke triggers 'hazardous' air quality alerts, grounds airplanes in U.S.: Full coverage - Yahoo News

Canadian wildfire smoke triggers 'hazardous' air quality alerts, grounds airplanes in U.S.: Full coverage

Smoke from Canadian wildfires triggered air quality alerts in more than a dozen U.S. states Wednesday, with health officials warning people, especially those in sensitive groups, such as children, the elderly or with respiratory conditions, to limit their time outdoors or stay inside.

In New York City, the U.S. Air Quality Index spike to "hazardous" levels, forcing many outdoor activities to be canceled and planes at area airports to be temporarily grounded due to low visibility.

Our live coverage has ended. For a recap of wildfire smoke coverage from Yahoo News reporters, see our blog below.
The latest on the wildfire smoke impacting the U.S.
• Smoke from Canadian wildfires continued to blanket a large swath of the U.S.
• Air quality alerts were issued in 15 states from Vermont to South Carolina.
• Health officials are urging people to limit their exposure and remain indoors.
• New York City public schools canceled outdoor activities due to hazardous air quality, the FAA issued a temporary ground stop at LaGuardia Airport due to poor visibility, and the New York Yankees and New York Liberty home games were postponed.
• You can look up the current air quality where you live here >>>

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Firefighters from across the globe to help Canada extinguish wildfires
Smoke from wildfires burning in the Canadian Provinces of Quebec, right, and Ontario, left, drift southward in this satellite image taken Tuesday. (CIRA/NOAA via AP)
Yahoo News Canada reports that firefighters from the United States, France, South Africa and New Zealand will assist in battling the country's unprecedented wildfires.
According to the provincial fire protection service, 100 French firefighters are set to arrive in Quebec on Thursday afternoon. Another 119 firefighters and a major fire management team from the U.S. is set to arrive later this week. The province of New Brunswick, located just outside of Maine, is also sending a crew of 40 firefighters to Abitbi, located in western Quebec. Read more from our northern neighbors here.
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When will the wildfire smoke clear?
Forecasts suggest the smoke shrouded over the northeastern U.S. won't clear for a few more days. Jen Carfagno, a Weather Channel meteorologist,
told CBS News: "We have been in a blocked pattern across North America all week long.
"That kept an area of upper level low pressure stuck over the Northeast. The flow around the low pressure has been guiding wildfire smoke from Quebec into the Northeast, Great Lakes, and even Ohio Valley and down in the mid-Atlantic."
When that weather pattern changes, the hazardous smoky haze will start to clear, she explained. That's expected to happen this weekend when forecasts show the wind will switch directions "at all levels of the atmosphere and bring in cleaner air."
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Jodie Comer cuts Broadway performance short because she 'couldn't breathe'
Jodie Comer at the 76th Annual Tony Awards meet the nominees press event in New York in May. (Siegfried Nacion/STAR MAX)
The "Killing Eve" star, who is currently starring in the one-woman Broadway show "Prima Facie," stopped the play because of the air quality crisis.
"Eyewitnesses say Comer told the audience she couldn’t breathe because of the air and a stage manager helped her off stage about 10 minutes into the matinée performance,"
Variety reports. "The show resumed from the top shortly after with Comer’s understudy Dani Arlington taking over the role, a spokesperson for the play confirmed."
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Scenes from New York and Washington, D.C.
People take photos of the smoke from Canada's wildfires Wednesday with the New York City skyline shrouded in haze. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
A person wears a face mask in Manhattan Wednesday as smoke from Canada's wildfires blankets the city. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Haze blankets monuments on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)
The Statue of Liberty is seen shrouded in hazy wildfire smoke Wednesday. (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo)
A person waiting for the subway in the Bronx on Wednesday wears a mask as smoky haze from wildfires in Canada blankets New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
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Is wildfire smoke the reason my allergies have been worse the last few days?
“Absolutely,” Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist/immunologist with the Allergy & Asthma Network,
tells Yahoo News. “It can make your allergies worse because it basically amplifies them, adding more inflammation so your symptoms are much worse too.
"It makes your eyes burn and your skin itch more. Same thing with your cough — more coughing, wheezing, more asthma attacks. And if you suffer from sinus allergies, this can definitely make it worse because that's the first port of entry for wildfire smoke — through your nose.”
Read more on how smoke from the Canadian wildfires impacts your health here.
Climate change has helped blanket the eastern U.S. with smoke
Lower Manhattan seen through smoke. (Getty Images)
Yahoo News' Senior Climate Editor Ben Adler explains how climate change has helped blanket the Northeast with wildfire smoke:
As the planet has warmed in recent years, studies have shown that wildfires have
become larger across the western United States, making skies hazy with smoke. This year, as smoke from Canadian wildfires has enveloped cities from New York City to Detroit, the eastern portion of the country is also getting a taste of that particular consequence of climate change.
Two big risk factors for wildfires are excessive heat and drought, both of which are becoming more common due to climate change. “We're seeing increases in the intensity and the severity, the overall burned area of wildfires and the duration of fire across the fire season,” NASA wildfire expert Liz Hoy
said in a December 2022 video. Read more from Ben's report here.
New York AQI hits a staggering 413
(AirNow.gov)
The Air Quality Index (AQI) for New York City continued to climb into "hazardous" territory late Wednesday afternoon, hitting 413 as of 4 p.m. EDT.
AirNow.gov, a collaboration between the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Park Service, NASA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, keeps a running tally of air quality across the country.
And based on that AQI, it advised that "everyone should stay indoors and reduce activity levels."