Smoke from Canadian wildfires pushed New York City’s air quality into hazardous territory on Thursday, and the AirNow.gov map reflected the alert. Zohran Mamdani urged residents to stay inside and limit time outdoors as the city dealt with elevated pollution and heat above 90F.
“Every New Yorker should take precautions. Limit your time outdoors, especially strenuous activity,” Mamdani said as the warning took hold. New York City also made free KN95 masks available at hundreds of locations citywide, including libraries, police stations and firehouses.
New York City air alert
The National Weather Service issued the air-quality alert while smoke drifted south across a huge swathe of the US. By Thursday evening, the city’s office of emergency management was telling New Yorkers to avoid being outside for more than an hour. It also said people with watery eyes, a scratchy throat or difficulty breathing should reduce physical activity and go indoors.
Rachel Smalter Hall, a New York book publisher editor and mother of two, said she had received a message from her therapist on Thursday morning about whether to keep an in-person appointment. “I had noticed when I was outside that my eyes were stinging,” she said, adding that she could see “the color of the sky changing.”
Brooklyn and Times Square
Jackie Bell, a Brooklyn mother on maternity leave, said she decided to keep her children home rather than make 30-minute walks through the smoggy air to Prospect Park camp and back. John, a Queens resident with asthma who was working security in Times Square, said, “You can taste the burnt paper in the air.”
The city’s guidance gave residents a practical cutoff for the day: shorten time outside, avoid strenuous activity and move indoors if breathing becomes difficult. The episode came as the heat reached above 90F, or 32.2C, and New Yorkers with asthma and other breathing problems faced the sharpest limits on outdoor time.
