If you notice the sky looking a little hazy in parts of New Jersey and New York City this week, it might have nothing to do with summer storm clouds. Instead, the haze may be caused by smoke drifting south from wildfires that are burning up north in Canada.
Light smoke from the wildfires was visible in New York City Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service’s New York regional forecast office.
And the weather service’s main office in New Jersey says the Garden State may see some of the smoke drifting over parts of our region. Winds blowing from the north “may draw in smoke in the mid- and upper- levels (of the atmosphere) from wildfires in Canada, potentially resulting in a bit of hazy conditions,” the office noted in its morning forecast discussion.
“But the extent to which this occurs is uncertain,” the office added.
The weather service’s New York office — which covers New York City, Long Island, parts of Connecticut and parts of northern New Jersey — said hazy conditions from the Canadian smoke could persist for the next several days. While forecasters are “not expecting harmful impacts to air quality, at this time,” some people reported smelling the smoke in New York City this morning.
In addition to some smoke-related haze, people in the New Jersey region may also see darker than normal skies from real clouds Wednesday afternoon. That’s when some cumulus clouds are expected to drift in.
The weather service says “some mid- and upper-level shortwave energy may help spark a few isolated showers or a thunderstorm this afternoon/evening, most likely north of the I-78 corridor.”
Aside from that, most areas of the Garden State are forecast to see partly to mostly sunny skies Wednesday, with seasonable temperatures in the low to mid-80s.
Today’s smoke may bring back memories of last summer, when huge numbers of wildfires were burning in Canada, sending thick plumes of smoke south into many areas of New Jersey and New York and triggering widespread air quality alerts.
“It won’t be anything like that,” said Steven DiMartino, head of the NY NJ PA Weather forecasting company, based in Monmouth County.
“Last year we had a persistent northerly wind, or northwesterly wind, in place for much of the summer,” DiMartino said in a forecast video Wednesday. “So our northerly wind component is back. As a result, we’re getting this transport from the Canadian forest fires.... transporting back into our region.”
DiMartino said he is not expecting air quality as poor as it was last summer, but people in our region may notice some hazy skies and possibly an odor that smells like a forest fire on days when the wind is blowing from the north.
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Stories by Len Melisurgo
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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or on X at @LensReality.