Satellite Image Shows Smoke Engulfing U.S. East Coast

Huge plumes of thick smoke from wildfires blazing across Canada have been blown across to smother the U.S. East Coast, turning the sky in New York City an eerie rust-orange.

Images taken from space showed the smoke engulfing New York and Pennsylvania early on June 7. The photos were taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16).

This blanket of thick smoke caused the air quality in New York City to plummet: the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels were extremely high, and, at one point, much worse than other cities like Dubai in the UAE and Delhi in India. AirNow air-quality monitors recorded over 400 micrograms per cubic meter of air in Syracuse, New York, at around the same time the satellite picture was taken. This marked the highest on record since measurements began in 1999.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified the air quality across the northeast as "unhealthy".

"The surface smoke pollution from New York to the D.C. region is easily the most significant since at least July 2002, when a similar situation occurred with nearby fires in Quebec," Ryan Stauffer told NASA Earth Observatory. He is an atmospheric scientist based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "This event is rivaling, and in some cases will likely surpass, the observed 2002 smoke pollution."

This enormous amount of smoke is being produced by wildfires across the Canadian province of Quebec, which now number over 150.

Quebec Forestry Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina told Canadian news outlet CBC that 1,776 square miles of land had burned this year so far, surpassing the 1991 total of about 1,351 square miles. This equates to around 12 times the 10-year average area burned for this time of year. "We have never seen these many hectares [burn]," Vézina said.

This comes only weeks after British Columbia and Alberta in the west saw multiple wildfires, and days after Nova Scotia experienced several intense blazes. It is thought that these fires were driven by the country's unseasonably dry spring, combined with dry and windy conditions. Fires are still burning across the rest of the country, with 420 fires recorded in Canada as of late Monday afternoon.

The smoke caused much of New York City to appear like a scene from a movie, with the sky turning a burnt orange, and visibility being severely reduced.

"Smoke particles scatter and absorb shorter wavelengths of sunlight like blues, greens, and yellows more easily compared to the longer-wavelength oranges and reds. So we see muted red sunrises and sunsets under heavy-smoke conditions," Stauffer said. "In extreme cases like this week, the sun may become obscured entirely."

Breathing in this polluted air can be dangerous to residents, especially those with respiratory issues. It may lead to inflammation in the eyes, nose and throat, and chest pain.

"On these elevated air pollution days, we'll see an increased number of visits to hospital," Matthew Adams, a professor at the University of Toronto and the director of its Centre of Urban Environments, told the BBC. "And the people that are visiting the hospital typically have a preexisting respiratory disease."

Those worse affected are advised to wear an N95 mask outside, which should serve to block the smoke particles from being breathed in.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news briefing Wednesday morning that residents should stay indoors until the smoke clears. Flanked by New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol, Adams added that these wildfires are due to the effects of climate change.

"While this may be the first time we've experienced something like this of this magnitude, let's be clear, it's not the last," Adams said. "Climate change has accelerated these conditions. We must continue to draw down emissions, improve air quality and build resiliency.

"New York City is clearly a national leader on public health and climate action," Adams added. "These dangerous air-quality conditions are clearly an urgent reminder that we must act now to protect our city, our environment and the future of our children."

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