New York City should brace for poor air quality and a hazy sky on Wednesday — but the less-than-stellar conditions can’t all be blamed on the ongoing Canadian wildfires raging up north.
The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert for all of the Big Apple and the rest of the tri-state area, warning people of certain ages or with health conditions to take it easy as they try to get through the middle of the work week.
The hazardous air is expected to last between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m., but it can’t be attributed to the smoke from the massive fires ripping through parts of Canada.
Instead, plain old summer weather is the likely culprit.
The combination of warm temperatures, lots of sunshine and little wind will worsen the air quality in the greater metro area, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Carl Erickson told The Post.
“The Canadian wildfire smoke, that’s more into the upper atmosphere, just kind of causing the sky to look hazy,” he said, noting the smoke isn’t close enough to the surface to affect people’s breathing.
“It’ll be more visual,” making the sunrise and sunset look more vibrant, he added.
He said air quality alerts will be a common sight over the summer months, especially in urban areas like the Big Apple.
The fires north of the border led to rough conditions in parts of the Midwest, where some states have put out alerts that their air quality is “very unhealthy.”
The Minneapolis-St-Paul area reeked of smoke Tuesday, even as rain dampened some of the unbearable smell.
More than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces were forced to flee their homes since last month, with the smoke even reaching some of Europe, causing hazy skies, but not unhealthy air.
The city grappled with a surreal orange sky and awful air quality when smoke from Canadian wildfires descended on New York in June 2023.
With Post wires.
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