Weather

Wildfire Smoke To Return To Long Island Skies: What To Know

Smoke from Canadian wildfires will be making a return to Long Island late Thursday into Friday.

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Yellow haze from Canada's wildfires — shown here in this picture in Flanders on the Peconic Bay — is predicted to return to Long Island late Thursday.
Yellow haze from Canada's wildfires — shown here in this picture in Flanders on the Peconic Bay — is predicted to return to Long Island late Thursday. (Ivy Stella Orfanitopoulos)

LONG ISLAND, NY — Smoke from Canadian wildfires will be making a return to Long Island late Thursday into Friday, the National Weather Service said.

While it will mostly stay in the upper atmosphere, Nassau and Suffolk counties, Rockland, Westchester, New York City and northern New Jersey will experience near-surface smoke, the service said.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires will return to the Hudson Valley and Long Island, the National Weather Service reported. (NOAA)

The NWS does not expect a return to the dense smoke that blanketed the region with toxic fumes and fine particulates, sending the air quality index soaring to 400-plus levels, well above the "safe" mark of 50.

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Currently, AirNow.gov shows poor air quality from Canadian wildfire smoke mostly affecting the upper Midwest.

Most of the smoke from Canadian wildfires will be high in the atmosphere Thursday and Friday, the National Weather Service said. (NOAA)

"The good news is that per the latest High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Smoke model forecasts, the vast majority of the smoke should remain aloft," the NWS tweeted.

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On Monday, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre was at a national preparedness level of five, the highest level of wildfire activity response, as fires continued to blaze across the nation, AccuWeather said.

Wildfires have burned over 12.3 million acres since the start of the year, roughly 158,676 of which were in Ontario. This week, winds from the north and northeast will carry the smoke from those fires in the province into the Upper Midwest due to the combination of high pressure over the northern Plains and low pressure over the Northeast, AccuWeather said.

Check Your Air Quality

AirNow.gov, which reports air quality using the official U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI), has an updated map of air quality in the U.S.

Air quality alerts are triggered by a number of factors, including the detection of fine-particle pollution — known as "PM 2.5" — which can irritate the lungs.
The AQI scale is as follows:

  • Good/green: 0-50
  • Moderate/yellow: 51-100
  • Unhealthy for sensitive groups/orange: 101-150
  • Unhealthy/red: 151-200
  • Very unhealthy/purple: 201-300
  • Hazardous/maroon: 301-500

AirNow partners with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Park Service, NASA, Centers for Disease Control, and tribal, state, and local air quality agencies.

Patch staffers Lanning Taliaferro, Veronica Flesher and Michelle Rotuno-Johnson contributed to this report.

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