Air Quality Alerts Cover Vermont, Much Of Northeast Due To Canadian Fires

Satellite photo late this afternoon shows widespread
smoke in the Northeast U.S. and swaths of Canada.
At the time this photo was taken, the smoke was
just beginning to thicken up in Vermont. The milky
stuff in the photo is smoke, the sharper,
whiter stuff is regular old clouds. 

The air quality alert that had been in effect for western Vermont all afternoon has been expanded to cover the entire state. It'll be in effect at least through 9 a.m. Tuesday. 

It's part of a large air pollution problem that now covers all of New England except Maine and eastern New Hampshire. All of New York State is also under an air pollution alert.

Most of the smoke so far today has been flowing southward through New York State, with the eastern extent of the thickest haze near the New York/Vermont border.

Satellite imagery late this afternoon shows a new surge of smoke that will soon cross the Canadian border and eventually engulf all of Vermont. 

The air has been getting increasingly hazy this afternoon, especially in western Vermont, and that trend will continue.  The air quality index has been slowly deteriorating in much of Vermont through the day. 

When we started this morning, the index was around 20, which is great. By around 5 p.m., the air quality index in Burlington was 114, which is in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" category. If the index goes above 150, which it might, that would mean the air is unhealthy for all of us.

If you have asthma or other issues like that, you'll want to stay inside. With air conditioning or air cleansing devices if they're available.  If  you're really healthy, you might consider postponing your daily 5 to 10 mile run.  It's not good for you, I'm afraid. 

The smoke pollution consists of tiny particles that can lodge in the deepest, tiniest recesses of the lungs. Basically, we're all smoking cigarettes now. 

The air quality alert in Vermont stays in effect through 9 a.m Tuesday. However, forecasters and the Vermont Department of Natural Resources are already guessing they'll have to extend the alerts through Tuesday and possibly Wednesday at least.

The smoke has had another negative effect, besides being unhealthy.  The smoke has suppressed the kind of updrafts you need to generate showers. We desperately need the rain, and the smoke effectively shut off the chances of showers this afternoon and early evening. 

Haze was beginning two get noticeably thicker in
St. Albans, Vermont late this afternoon.

Showers are in the forecast tomorrow. But again, the smoke might suppress the ability of the atmosphere to create those showers.  So yeah, this whole thing is a lose/lose proposition. 

We can partly blame this smoky mess partly on climate change. Yes, there have always been forest fires run eastern and central Canada, and we've always occasionally dealt with smoke from those blazes.

However, much of Canada has seen record high temperatures this spring, along with very dry conditions. This combination has been made more likely with climate change.  You might have noticed recent summers have been getting more smoky in general due to fires in Canada and the western United States.

This trend could keep worsening as the years go by. Some years will still be pretty clean. But chances are rising we'll have to deal with smoke and haze and bad stuff for your lungs more and more as we go through the next years and decades.