Skies across the Northeast turned an eerie orange this week as smoke from more than 830 Canadian wildfires — plus over a dozen fires in northern Minnesota — swept into the U.S., triggering air quality alerts from Chicago to New York to Washington, D.C.
The smoke is being made worse by the region’s ongoing heat dome, which is trapping the haze near the surface instead of letting it disperse. Iconic landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, One World Trade Center, and the Empire State Building were all photographed shrouded in orange haze, while in Utica, NY, the sun reportedly glowed deep orange through the smoke. On Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, one meteorologist said conditions looked "like Mars."
Air quality has reached hazardous levels in parts of the Midwest — Marquette, Michigan hit an AQI of 795, and Duluth, Minnesota hit 682, both far above the "hazardous" threshold of 300. Boston’s AQI reached about 130 Wednesday morning, landing in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" range.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued an Air Quality Health Advisory, urging residents to stay indoors in air conditioning, limit outdoor activity, and check on vulnerable neighbors, while the city distributed free KN95 masks. Forecasters say a shift in the weather pattern next week should gradually improve conditions, but smoky skies are expected to persist into the weekend.
🌫️ In this video:
Why the sky turned orange across the Northeast
How the heat dome is making the smoke worse
Which cities are under air quality alerts
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