Canada wildfire smoke rolls in: New York City air becomes some of the worst, second only to Delhi in the world

Smoke emanating from the wildfires raging across Canada has created a thick haze across New York City’s iconic skyline, giving it a unwanted distinction of the city with some of the worst air pollution in the world. Early Wednesday morning, New York City was second only to New Delhi for the worst air quality and pollution out of 100 tracked countries, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

According to a CBS News report, citing the company, the city currently has an Air Quality Index of 160, categorised as an “unhealthy” amount, meaning that some people may experience health effects. That ranking was soon bumped down to third after Detroit’s AQI hit 162, added the report. Particulate matter in New York’s air was measured at 14.5 times the World Health Organization’s annual air quality guideline value, IQAir said, but it’s expected that it will improve to at least “moderate” through the weekend. This is a stark difference from the typical air in New York City, which IQAir says has had an AQI of less than 50, classified as “good,” in recent years. Although it had not yet been formally listed on the IQAir world’s-worst air quality list for unknown reasons, Washington, D.C., according to the company, has an AQI of 180 – 22.3 times the WHO’s recommendation – which would place it just behind Delhi. According to the government-run website AirNow, the air quality in the nation’s capital is even higher, with an AQI of 194, reported CBS News. According to NBC news, About 128 million people were under air quality alerts because of wildfire smoke and ozone in the US on Wednesday night. For smoke alone, around 100 million were under alerts across 16 states. “Air quality has plummeted across much of the northeast as smoke from wildfires in Canada moves south,” the report quoted the agency as saying. Another bad air day on Thursday After a day of orange haze that cast a pall over New York City, obscuring some of the nation’s best-known landmarks with smoke from Canadian wildfires, New Yorkers and others were in store for another day of bad air Thursday. The smoke in major metro areas, including Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., was expected to continue through Thursday and cause air unhealthy for all groups, the National Weather Service said. Air quality advisories were in place for all five boroughs of the city of more than 8 million people, and Mayor Eric Adams called the situation unprecedented, reported NBC news. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .