A historic meteorological/air quality event is currently taking place over the New York metropolitan area.
And as far as I can determine, this is the worst air quality event ever recorded there in over 70 years, the result of smoke from the massive wildfires in northern Quebec.
Certainly, worse air quality has ever been observed during the warm season in the region.
New York City real-time cam at around 1pm PDT is awesome (see below)
And the high-resolution MODIS image shows a dense smoky area over the Big Apple:
When I tested the level of small particles (PM2.5, concentration of particles less than 2.5 microns–one millionth of a meter), using the PurpleAir network, I can’t believe my eyes..value 300-450 microgram per cubic meter.
And a PM2.5 chart from an official website in Queens, NYC shows levels up to around 800 micrograms per cubic meter…which is unprecedented.
The weather situation turned out to be perfect for pulling Quebec smoke into the New York area. Why? Due to a strong low pressure area just off the northeast coast (see map below at about 5000 ft). I added a red arrow to show low level airflow.
The NOAA HRRR Smoke Model clearly shows the circulation of smoke around the low:
So why are we in the midst of early season wildfires in northern Canada?
Because the atmosphere over North America has an unusual and persistent configuration, with a high pressure peak in Canada and a low pressure trough in California (the figure below shows the situation at about 18000 ft over the past month). Red indicates much higher than normal altitude, which is related to warmer low temperatures, blue indicates lower than normal pressure (trough).
A similar pattern has played out over the past 90 days (see below).
The high pressure leads to abnormal heating and drying of the fuel on the surface.
Is there any reason to think this configuration is the result of global warming/climate change? Current research shows no.
