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The skies of New York began to breathe a sigh of relief 48 hours before the start of the World Cup final, after a noticeable improvement in air quality that threatened to spoil the tournament’s final spectacle.
And it showed National Weather Service data Air quality monitoring agency AirNow lowered the pollution index from 185 to 170 and then to 124 after peaking at 264 in the “very unhealthy” category on Wednesday, 15 times worse than normal.
The improvement came to lift the city out of the dangerous purple zone it entered on Thursday, into the orange zone, which means the air is “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, only after pollution levels fell by more than 50%.
Authorities issued a stark warning at 4 a.m. Friday, confirming that “the situation has worsened compared to yesterday and everyone may begin to experience health effects that could become dangerous for sensitive groups” due to fine PM2.5 particles that can enter the bloodstream from more than 100 wildfires burning across Canada.
On an air quality scale ranging from 0 to 500, where 100 is harmful to sensitive groups, 150 is dangerous to normal life and 200 is extremely dangerous, New York City scored 124 after hundreds of locations distributed free KN95 masks across the five boroughs and made recommendations to reduce outdoor physical activity.
The weather forecast offers an additional glimmer of hope as heavy rain is expected in the New York area on Saturday night, which could go a long way in dispersing the thick smoke, although it won’t completely eliminate the problem, but it will be enough to save the final from the specter of a postponement.
