The skies have been hazy over the past day or so in New York, and it may actually have to do with the catastrophe taking place on the opposite coast.
“We’ve often seen this type of sunrise and sunset during fire season,” writes Wilke, who sent these photos. “We’re thinking of our friends and family on the West Coast.”
It may seem improbable — we’re talking nearly 3,000 miles here. But some meteorologists say the smoke appears to have made its way across the country.
According to New York Metro Weather, a community-supported weather service, the jet stream takes the smoke East.
Smoke from wildfires in the Western US has reached NYC. How it happens, what it means for us, and a few ways you can help our friends out west: https://t.co/NAkLKjNDh5 pic.twitter.com/Hod3XQVDw2
— New York Metro Weather (@nymetrowx) September 15, 2020
“The smoke is swirling clockwise around the high pressure over the Great Basin and then getting caught up in westerly flow east of the Rockies,” National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Malingowski told SFGate. “Then it’s making its way across the plains to the East Coast. It looks like the smoke, depending on what’s happening with the winds, could be reaching anywhere from the Carolinas to the Northeaster part of the county. It’s hard to tell exactly.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations tracks smoke with satellites. This image is from Monday.
New York Metro Weather says it doesn’t impact ground-level air quality.
Ground level air quality impacts will be limited, with most of the smoke remaining 15,000 to 20,000 feet above our heads. The main effect will be hazy skies and perhaps slightly cooler temperatures as a result! https://t.co/3btp5B78VA
— New York Metro Weather (@nymetrowx) September 15, 2020
Shame on them for not raking their leaves, amirite?
/s
You are DEFINITELY “rite”!
Of course what Mr. Would-Be-Dictator conveniently fails to mention is that MANY of the fires are actually on FEDERAL land; so it’s
some Federal agency that is not practicing Good-Forest-Keeping.
Second that. Of the 33 million acres of forest land in California, 57% is owned and managed by federal government entities:
https://ucanr.edu/sites/forestry/California_forests/
The California fires smoke has reached the Mediterranean, as reported by Spanish press. It is clearly seen in satellite pictures.
We got it easy in this one… friends in NoCal are wearing N95 masks INSIDE their homes.
Thanks for this – I was in Riverside Park an hour before sunset yesterday and noticed that the sun looked weird. It was clearly visible and yet the skies looked cloudy? Didn’t make sense. Seemed thicker than haze. I didn’t put the western view together with the environmental events on the West coast!
At the time of the Dust Bowl NYC was gray from the dust brought here by the winds. Ken Burns shows this in his documentary about the Dust Bowl. I’m not surprised we’re experiencing the same thing now. We are one country and whatever is happening in the environment, politics, economics and social realm effects us all.