NYC NOW - June 8, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Air quality remains hazardous across the region, but the National Weather Service says conditions should improve by next week. As WNYC's Stephen Nessen reports, subway stations offer no relief from the bad air. Finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill discusses the science behind the hazy skies with Mike Shanahan, a science educator at New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center.

NYC now. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, June 8th. There's the Midday News from Kerry Nolan. As you've been hearing, air quality remains at dangerous levels in most of our area, despite some predictions that things might get better today. Lucas Walters is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He says a stalled weather pattern is preventing the smoke from clearing our area, and it's more likely conditions will improve next week. Early Monday and Wednesday, that pattern will probably change. But kind of too really to give a direct answer of if it'll move to different areas or if it will reduce a smoke in the country entirely. Officials are asking everyone to stay inside as much as possible. We'll keep you updated.

If you think going underground to grab a subway might give you some relief from the bad air, well, think again. WNYC's Stephen Nesson reports it's actually. It's actually. actually much worse. To check the air quality in the subways, I meet up with a couple of NYU researchers at the Broadway Lafayette Station. Nice to meet you, Antonio. David.

They're carrying two lunchbox-sized, $1,000 air quality monitors. There's a clear straw poking out of each one. They check the level of particulate matter in the air above ground first. It's kind of startling just looking at them right now. It's reading about 600. Last Saturday, it was 15.

But below ground... Can you see the haze looking down the platform? Yeah, that's the density of the particles. The monitor ticks up to 660. That's a lot. Yeah. Antonio says it is surprising. The MTA says it's monitoring the conditions.

Right now it's 66 degrees under hazy skies in New York City, and behind all that smoke, we have partly sunny skies. It'll be hazy and smoky this afternoon with a slight chance of showers later on, with highs in the lower 70s. NYC. For WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Wildfire smoke from Canada continues to waft down to the East Coast, tending the skies in New York, yellow and yellow all over the place.

And now lots of kids are at home as well. With public schools in the city already scheduled to be closed the next two days before the smoke and some private schools close to, kids might be wondering why the world looks so different outside today and why it might not be smart to play outside. Mike Shonahan is a science-educated with the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. He's also the Planetarium Director. He joins us now to talk about the ins and outs of wildfires smoke for everyone. Mike, welcome to morning edition.

Thank you so much for having me, Michael. Yeah, most welcome. Mike, would you explain to our youngest listeners what's happening outside? Where's the smoke coming from? So the smoke is coming mainly from wildfires in eastern Canada, so hundreds of miles away, and the conditions of weather right now have brought this smoke down to our region. Why does this cause the sky to change colors, though? That's a great question.

So basically, as you probably know, sunlight is basically made of all the colors of the rainbow. When you have smoke in the atmosphere, the blue. light, which is mainly short wavelengths of light, is easily scattered by these particles that are in the atmosphere from the smoke. They're bounced around, which stops the blue light from getting to your eyes and you perceiving the blue light. Red light, which is longer wavelengths, can penetrate the smoke more easily, and therefore you see more red, orange, and yellow in the sky than you would see under normal circumstances. Yeah, some of the sunlight I saw yesterday they actually looked orange.

Officials say such as Mayor Adams are wanting New Yorkers to minimize outdoor activity, why do experts say it's a bad idea to do things like play in the park or run outside today? Yeah, sort of everything that normally is good is not recommended today specifically. As you're outside where all the smoke is, especially as you exercise, you breathe in a lot of the air, and that can get into your lungs. And so during this unique circumstance we're under, being indoors with the windows closed is a really, really good idea. Some kids may have feelings about wearing a mask again, as we all might after the years of COVID.

How does masking help protect people from the smoke? Well, at least N95 masks are recommended because it does help to hold, keep out some of the particles of the matter. The good news is, of course, is that we do expect this to end fairly shortly within a day or two. So if one mass up to be on the safe side outside, it's going to be a short-term step that we have to take to deal with this circumstance. We'd certainly welcome that.

We certainly would welcome that. What will make this smoke go away, Mike? Well, there was this pressure system off the coast that's been kind of directing the smoke from Canada down to us. That's coming to an end. So as mentioned just a moment ago, there's some chance of rain this afternoon, which would certainly help.

but if not that, then tomorrow we're expecting to see changes in the air pressure and the wind conditions that will, we hope, take this out of our neck of the woods. Mike, as bad as all of this is for a health and dangerous as well and hazardous as well, this is also an outdoor real learning opportunity for all of us. It's a really striking circumstance. I mean, it's certainly absolutely dramatic. I flew in to New Jersey two days ago coming back from Florida, and the landscape looked incredible in both a good and a bad way,

but certainly it's a way to really, it dramatically underscores the risk of a circumstance like this with wildfires. So it's been quite the unusual, visually engaging experience, but I wouldn't go out door as much to observe it today. Mike Shanahan is a science educator with their liberty, Science Center in New Jersey. Mike, thank you so much for explaining all this and joining us this morning. Michael, thank you so much.

I really appreciate it. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More this evening.