More than 4,900 flights are still delayed as smoke chokes the Northeast: ... trends now
More than 4,900 flights have been delayed - and 950 canceled altogether - due to Canadian wildfire smoke which continues to smother North America's east cost.
Travel chaos continued through Thursday due to the hazardous smog and the number of delays expected to rise after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered several East Coast airports to halt activity due to poor visibility.
On Thursday afternoon the FAA said it was monitoring the situation but would continue to limit flights bound for LaGuardia and EWR in New York, as well as Philadelphia International Airport.
Philadelphia International Airport said on Thursday evening that ground delays impacting flights arriving had been lifted, but encouraged passengers to check for with airlines for latest flight information.
As smoke begins to clear over states in the North East it is expected to be driven further south and east.
A map of the impact the wildfire smoke has had upon air quality levels across the East Coast. Purple sections are deemed 'hazardous', red is 'unhealthy', orange is 'unhealthy for sensitive groups', and yellow is 'moderate'
More than 4,900 flights have been delayed - and 950 canceled altogether - due to Canadian wildfire smoke. One World Trade Center in New York City is obscured amid hazy conditions due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires as planes sit on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International Airport on June 8
The British Columbia Wildfire Service continues to respond to the West Kiskatinaw River and Peavine Creek wildfires in the Dawson Creek Zone
Aerial footage from June 7 shows raging wildfire in British Columbia that has burned through an estimated 250,000 hectares
The latest developments on the wildfire smoke smothering the north east:
The wildfire in northeastern British Columbia has now burned an area close to the size of Metro Vancouver
WASHINGTON, DC: Members of the Marine Corps practice under hazy skies near the Lincoln Memorial
VIRGINIA: The misty smog looming over the United States Marine Corps War Memorial as the sun rises, Thursday, June 8, 2023
PHILADELPHIA, PA: Hazardous smoke descended on the Philadelphia skyline for the second day in a row
WASHINGTON, DC: Tourists packed outside the White House under misty skies
NYC: Manhattan is blanketed in smoke for a second day as Canadian wildfires continue to spell disaster for the East Coast
Around 75 million people were under some level of air quality alert Thursday, as residents in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia faced air quality worse than the most polluted cities in the world, such as Lahore, in Pakistan and Delhi in India.
School districts in New Jersey and New York announced closures or updated schedules, while multiple states including Pennsylvania - which has become the new epicenter - issued 'code red' advisories for residents to stay inside.
The FAA had grounded flights from Philadelphia, La Guardia and Newark Airports due to low visibility on Thursday morning. The runways at Philadelphia have since been resumed, while inbound flights from the Northeast, Ohio and Mid-Atlantic have been paused into LaGuardia and Newark.
The FAA told DailyMail.com that New York's JFK Airport is not hampered by any delays, adding: 'The intensity of the smoke varies and the runways and approach paths to JFK are currently not impacted.'
Windsor Township - about 70 miles west of Philadelphia - is the country's worst affected area with a particulate matter (PM2.5) rating of 457. That dwarfs the notoriously foul air in Delhi with a rating of 316.
Hundreds of forest fires in Canada have scorched 9.4 million acres and forced 120,000 people from their homes in an unusually early and intense start to the wildfire season.
And with weather systems expected to hardly budge, the smoky blanket billowing from Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina and northern Europe should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend.
That means at least another day or more of a dystopian-style detour that's chased players from ballfields, actors from Broadway stages, delayed thousands of flights and sparked a resurgence in mask wearing and remote work - all while raising concerns about the
