Hazy Fifth of July

This was the 5th of July at about 5:15 AM. The Verrazano Bridge is partially obscured by a haze of smoke that I thought was from Canada, but turned out to be from fireworks. It was kind of a Bronx firecrackers or gunshots moment.

The humidity and low wind took the AQI up to about 300 that night, but thankfully it cleared up by the end of the day. I want some normalcy. Except for traffic. It’d be great if that’d stay low like it has been all week.

Heavy smoke in New York City from Canada’s wildfires

I took this photo outside my office in south Brooklyn today around 2 PM. What’s supposed to be the heaviest of the smoke from Canada’s wildfires reached New York City today.

In retrospect, I wonder why we were even at work. The air quality index hit the low 400s today on a scale that maxes out at 500. Some people had windows open in the building as well so the air inside wasn’t much better than outside. I feel like this is going to have a real impact on my health later in life, but there’s not much I can do about it now.

It was impressive though, in a bad way. The situation reminded me of sand storms that I experienced in Iraq in 2003. When the first sand storm rolled in, we were in full NBC gear and we put on our masks to protect ourselves from the dust in the air. I wish I had that mask today.