An air quality alert has been issued for most of New York state Monday due to the ongoing wildfires in Canada.
State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos and State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for the Long Island, New York City Metro, Lower Hudson Valley, Upper Hudson Valley, Adirondacks, Eastern Lake Ontario, Central New York, and Western New York regions for Monday. Officials say a fine particulate matter advisory will be in effect from 12 a.m. through 11:59 p.m. Monday, while an ozone advisory will be in effect from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m.
Officials say the air quality will likely to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. Even if it is not as visible as it was in previous weeks, state officials are asking those groups to be cautious when outside.
The DEC and DOH say Air Quality Health Advisories are issued when DEC meteorologists predict levels of pollution, either ozone or fine particulate matter are expected to exceed an Air Quality Index value of 100.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that unhealthy air from the wildfires in Canada was expected to hit parts of New York state again Monday, mostly in northern and western parts of the state. She said the air quality index was forecasted to be 100 to 150 in those areas, when 0 to 50 is the norm. Her comments came at a news conference about heavy rain and flooding.
“As if the rain coming out of the sky isn’t enough, if you start looking up tomorrow you’re going to see a similar situation to what we had a couple of weeks ago because of the air quality degradation resulting from the wildfires in Canada,” she said. “We’re likely to be issuing a air quality alert for portions of our state. It seems to be projected to be mostly around western New York and the North Country at this time. But as we saw, it can shift very quickly and start developing in more populated areas.”
