TWF 339: Air Quality Warnings To Continue Due To Canadian Wildfires

Update 1:  Freeport Schools are closed tomorrow, 6/8/2023.

 Hello, friends,

I hope you're all okay, and I do mean that sincerely because of the air quality situation we have on Long Island.  And New York.  And at least ten other states, if my recent weather report on News 12 was any consideration.

I have to keep this post kind of quick because I have appointments, but I wanted to put out a short thing about the air quality situation we're facing.  After all, if you've taken a look outside your window, you've probably noticed that the sky is orange and the air smells like smoke.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation put out an air quality warning not just for today, but for tomorrow (Thursday the 9th) as well.  News Twelve (I watched their live broadcast, so I don't have a link) said this could continue not just until Friday, but until Saturday as well.

But what's causing this?

First off:  It's mostly global climate change.  That area of Canada is experiencing a heavy drought combined with higher-than-usual temperatures, although supposedly the big fires were accidentally created by Human fires.

But as to this specific event: To my absolutely-amateur understanding, the Jet Stream is pulling the smoke from major wildfires in Canada down through New York, New England, and other states.  Here's what the jet stream looks like at the moment.

Image taken from https://www.netweather.tv/charts-and-data/global-jetstream#2023/06/07/1200Z/jetstream/surface/level/overlay=jetstream/orthographic=-78.61,27.26,712

That lines up pretty well with the New York Times' smoke map:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/smoke-maps-canada-fires.html

And, thus, we can't breathe well.

There's not much we can do about it at this point, other than to consider that we need to fix our environment as much and as fast as possible to minimize the number of times this happens in the future.

Mitigation efforts include not going outside  as much as possible (So for the kids in school that means not having outdoor recess), closing windows, making sure air conditioner filters are cleaned out, and all that.

You could also download an air quality monitoring app to your phone.  The Weather Channel just told us that New York's in 355, which is among if not atop the worst in the world.

Be safe.

Jesse Pohlman is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy author from Long Island, New York, born and raised in Freeport.  If you're interested in his writing, check out his website here.