A wide ranging video showed how quickly visibility deteriorated in New York on Wednesday as smoke from lots of of lively fires across Canada eerily enveloped the Big Apple.
clip, provided by the National Meteorological Service on Twitter, it shows a reasonably clear skyline of New York around 11:00 AM, but as the smoke thickens, the skyscrapers increasingly fade into orange haze and are almost not possible to see until 2:00 PM
The NWS called the Martian footage of the city “almost unbelievable” in a tweet.
“People exposed to poor air quality, including seniors and young children, should limit their time outdoors where possible,” the agency warned.
On Wednesday afternoon, the air pollution was so weak it nearly crossed the entire air quality scale of 484, marking the worst air quality in the city since the Sixties.
On a traditional day in New York, the air index is around 100.
![11:30 panorama](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012335670.jpg?w=1024)
![12:00 New York skyline](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012335673.jpg?w=1024)
In response to Fox Forecast Center meteorologist Brian Mastro, the air quality index was even worse than after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Nevertheless, the air from the Canadian wildfires will not be as toxic as the cloud of debris that enveloped the city after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan.
The fog was so thick that around 2:00 p.m. in Central Park, many photosensitive street lamps turned on.
Conditions were expected to enhance after 9 p.m. Wednesday and clear through the night before air quality deteriorated again on Thursday afternoon, Adams said.
Adams and Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol highlighted the difficulty of forecasting air quality.
“I do know times like this might be scary, they might be shocking to many New Yorkers while you go outside and while you feel and breathe that air,” Iscol said at the briefing.
![13:00 panorama of New York](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012335671.jpg?w=1024)
![2:00 p.m. New York skyline](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012335671-1.jpg?w=1024)
Governor Hochul sends 400,000 masks to New York. Adams said the city has masks in stock for the duration of the pandemic and said a distribution program will begin.
New York public school students already had Thursday off, and teachers scheduled for training will accomplish that remotely, school chancellor David Banks said. The town will choose Thursday whether schools will close on Friday.
“There is incredibly dangerous air outside,” said New York Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan.
Up to now, he said, there was no influx of ER visits because of the conditions.