As hundreds of Canadian wildfires burn, unhealthy levels of smoke and haze continued to spread across portions of the Northeast, worsening air quality for millions of people. More than 400 active wildfires were burning across Canada Wednesday, with the worst affecting the eastern province of Quebec, which borders Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. Skylines looked orange and the air was smokey, as officials instructed people to stay indoors.
About 128 million people were under air quality alerts because of wildfire smoke and ozone in the U.S. as of Wednesday night, and the Federal Aviation Administration slowed air traffic at some major airports. For smoke alone, around 100 million were under alerts across 16 states.
The National Weather Service said that 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
Air quality advisories were in place for all five boroughs of the city of more than 8 million people, and NY Mayor Eric Adams called the situation unprecedented.
An Air Quality Alert issued by the National Weather Service remains in effect in parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut through Thursday night.
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