Smoke from Canada’s still-burning wildfires once again drifted across the border into the northern United States this week, prompting smoke and haze advisories until Wednesday, although the air quality remained much higher than it was during Canadian wildfire smoke plumes this summer.
“The smoke and haze will likely stay much higher up in the air than it was in June and July, meaning the impacts won’t be nearly as severe for those on the ground. As compared to the summer, when air quality reached hazardous levels, this week will be far less severe,” NBC News in New York explained on Monday.
Those high-altitude winds and high-pressure zones helped the wildfire smoke travel all the way to Florida, where milky hazes were observed as far south as Miami on Tuesday. The sky in Orlando was visibly tinged orange on Monday evening, triggering “moderate” air quality ratings across the Tampa-Orlando area.
On Tuesday, some surprisingly heavy concentrations of imported Canadian smoke gave parts of Florida the worst air-quality ratings in the country.
“I have lived in Florida for going on about 20 years, and this is the first time I can remember seeing such a thick blanket of smoke. For the past 24 hours, we’ve seen milky white, very hazy conditions across the peninsula,” National Weather Service meteorologist Will Ulrich said from Melbourne, Florida, on Tuesday.