Thursday night: Variable clouds, patchy fog inland. Lows 50-54. Friday: Scattered showers, chance for a thunderstorm or two, cloudy. Highs in the low 60s. Saturday: Highs in the upper 60s. Scattered showers to sun.
The extremely hazy skies over New York City and other Northeast cities this week have captivated the country as smoke from Canadian wildfires turned the air an ominous orange color.
Boston had its own smoky skies on Tuesday, but avoided the almost apocalyptic sights from New York City, where the air quality was rated as hazardous and temporarily the worst of any major city in the world.
Haze from wildfire smoke covering the sun over Boston on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. The smoke prompted an air quality alert in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the Northeast.Smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets New York City, affecting air quality on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.
The smoke is coming from Quebec and affected visibility enough in New York City, D.C., Philadelphia and Charlotte that it's affected flights into and out of their airports. Yet Boston, which is further north, hasn't had its air quality dip as much.
In fact, air quality in the city was good on Thursday, according to the EPA, while ranging from moderate to unhealthy for much of the rest of southern New England.
What spared Boston from the worst of the bad air? It really just boils down to the direction of the airflow.
The city has an area of low pressure overhead that acts as a steering mechanism in the atmosphere. It’s positioned directly over Maine. The counter-clockwise flow on the western periphery of the low pressure area brought a northerly wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere due southward.
So, while yes, we’re closer to the Quebec border in latitude, we weren’t closest to the plumes of smoke themselves, because: a) it was funneled away from us b) and the source region of the fires is closer in longitude.
A broad view of all the wildfire smoke today across the Midwest and Eastern United States. pic.twitter.com/DBNWiiGHRL
And that low pressure isn’t a perfect circle, like you see on TV all the time — there are waves and deviations. The atmosphere is a fluid, and the smoke fits the container of that fluid.
Wildfires in Canada have sent thick smoke across the Northeastern U.S.
There are deviations in the wind and it’s constantly changing. We tracked wildfire smoke overhead in April and May, which came from Western Canada but didn’t impact all states between New England and British Columbia.
By that same token, just because we’re in the clear today, doesn’t mean we will be tomorrow.
NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 7: A general view of hazy conditions resulting from Canadian wildfires at Yankee Stadium before the game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees on June 7, 2023, in New York, New York. (Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images)
JERSEY CITY, NJ – JUNE 7: Smoke shrouds the skyline of Brooklyn behind the Statue of Liberty as the sun rises in New York City on June 7, 2023, as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 6: Heavy smoke shrouds buildings around Times Square in a view looking north from the Empire State Building as the sun sets on June 6, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, US – JUNE 06: The Downtown Manhattan skyline stands shrouded in a reddish haze as a result of Canadian wildfires on June 06, 2023 in New York City. Over 100 wildfires are burning in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and Quebec resulting in air quality health alerts for the Adirondacks, Eastern Lake Ontario, Central New York and Western New York. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
JERSEY CITY, NJ – JUNE 7: Smoke continues to shroud the sun as it rises behind the skyline of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City on June 7, 2023, as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 06: People walk along the Brooklyn Promenade as a reddish haze enshrouds the Manhattan skyline as a result of Canadian wildfires on June 06, 2023 in New York City. Over 100 wildfires are burning in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and Quebec resulting in air quality health alerts for the Adirondacks, Eastern Lake Ontario, Central New York and Western New York. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, US – JUNE 06: The Downtown Manhattan skyline stands shrouded in a reddish haze as a result of Canadian wildfires on June 06, 2023 in New York City. Over 100 wildfires are burning in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and Quebec resulting in air quality health alerts for the Adirondacks, Eastern Lake Ontario, Central New York and Western New York. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
WEST NEW YORK, NJ – JUNE 7: Smoke continues to shroud the sun as it rises behind the skyline of Manhattan in New York City on June 7, 2023, as seen from West New York , New Jersey. (Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, US – JUNE 06: The Downtown Manhattan skyline stands shrouded in a reddish haze as a result of Canadian wildfires on June 06, 2023 in New York City. Over 100 wildfires are burning in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and Quebec resulting in air quality health alerts for the Adirondacks, Eastern Lake Ontario, Central New York and Western New York. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
