New York issues pollution alert amid smoke from wildfires in west and Canada
Rain covers the Empire State Building in New York July 8, 2012 as Tropical Storm Elsa moves up the Northeast with heavy rain and flash flood warnings.
NewYorkand parts of the eastern United States and Canada were shrouded in a gray smoky haze Tuesday from fires burning in western United States and Canada.
NewYorkstate's environmental protection services issued an air quality advisory, which is automatically triggered when fine particle matter is expected to rise above 35 micrograms per cubic metre of air.
An expert from the agency said it is not uncommon for smoke from fires in the west of the country to reach theNewYorkarea, but they usually remain high enough to not affect air quality.This time, the smoke was lower than usual, the expert said.
The phenomenon was set to dissipate on Wednesday with the arrival of a cold front in theNewYorkregion, said a spokesperson for the US National Weather Service.
Several large fires have ravaged the western United States in recent days -- notably in California, Nevada and Oregon, where the dangerous Bootleg Fire is still raging, even though the fire season has only just begun.
In Canada, more than 2,000 people have been evacuated in recent days in the province of Ontario, the most populous in the country, and more than 200 fires were active in the province and neighboring Manitoba, according to official figures Tuesday.