Smoke from wildfires in the western United States reaches New York, leaving the hazy sky, and the air quality is poor

Wildfires raging in the western United States, including a large-scale piracy fire in Oregon, spread to New York on Tuesday as smoke and ashes were released into the air in six-mile columns.

The sky in New York City is hazy because the wind blows smoke eastward from California, Oregon, Montana, and other states. Piracy fires reached 616 square miles and are now half of Rhode Island.

Last year, multiple fires raged on the West Coast, becoming the worst fire season in Oregon’s recent memory. The local sky was shrouded in “pea soup” smoke and affected the air quality thousands of miles away.

“We have seen a lot of fires that produce a lot of smoke, and… when the smoke reaches the eastern part of the country, it usually becomes thinner. All these fires cause too much smoke in the atmosphere and it’s still thick. ,” said David Lawrence, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “In the past two years, we have seen this phenomenon.”

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The fires on both sides of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California are also getting bigger. In Gaoshan County, the so-called California Alps, the Tamarack fire caused the evacuation of several communities and expanded to 61 square miles (158 square kilometers) without any containment. The Dixie Fire is located near the site of the deadly Paradise Fire in 2018, covering an area of ​​more than 90 square miles (163 square kilometers) and threatening small communities in the Feather River Valley region.

Tony Galvez fled the Tamarack fire in California with his daughter at the last minute on Tuesday, only to find that his home was gone.

“I lost my life, lost everything I once had. Children are the most important thing,” he said when receiving a call from a relative. “I have three teenage children. They are going home to enjoy the moon.”

The fires in Oregon ravaged the southern part of the state and expanded at a rate of four miles (six kilometers) a day driven by strong winds and extremely dry weather, which turned trees and bushes into gunpowder boxes.

Firefighters had to retreat from the flames for 10 consecutive days, because fireballs jumped from treetops to treetops, trees exploded, embers flew in front of the fire and sparked new fires. In some cases, the heat of hell would produce its own wind direction And dry lightning. A huge cloud of smoke and ash has risen to an altitude of 6 miles and can be seen from more than 100 miles in the sky.

The fire in the Fremont-Winema National Forest merged with a smaller nearby fire on Tuesday and repeatedly damaged the perimeter of treeless soil and flame retardants designed to prevent it from progressing.

The red flag weather warning indicating dangerous fire conditions remains in effect until Tuesday, and possibly even longer. 32% of the fire was under control.

“As long as this monster needs to be safely restricted, we will participate in it,” said incident commander Rob Allen.

During the fire, at least 2,000 families were evacuated and another 5,000 were threatened. At least 70 houses and more than 100 outbuildings were destroyed by the fire. The dense smoke has suffocated residents and wildlife in areas that have experienced months of drought and extreme heat. No one knew it was dead.

Extremely dry conditions and heat waves associated with climate change make wildfires more difficult to extinguish. Over the past 30 years, climate change has made the west warmer and drier, and will continue to make the weather more extreme, and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

On Tuesday, due to the danger of fire, officials from Friday temporarily closed all recreational and public access to the state-managed land in eastern Washington. The closure will affect approximately 2,260 square miles (5,853 square kilometers) of land.