To my New Englanders, how are you managing with the wildfire smoke?

27 comments

1. > how it’s affected everyday life
   >

   Lots of outdoor events got cancelled, people with breathing problems are suffering, the sky looks weird.

   > how would you describe the smell?

   Smoky.

2. Northern New England, like Boston north is barely affected.

   I was in the Boston area yesterday and it was slightly hazy, nothing all that noticeable.

   Maine is business as usual. Maybe that changes with the winds but the only thing I have noticed is redder sunsets. Air quality measurements where I am in southern Maine are pretty much baseline.

3. You can [read my previous comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/144tk1s/how_bad_is_it_in_new_york_city_and_the_east_coast/jnhkh0f/) as well as others from a previous related thread.

4. I literally haven’t noticed a difference. Also it has been raining on and off for like a week.

5. I live close to NYC, and Tuesday/Wednesday was certainly interesting. Orange skies/air, people needing to wear masks outside. Nearly triple the unhealthy threshold for air quality.

6. Here in northern Vermont, we had one day of kind of hazy skies with a red sun last week.

   Since then, it’s been cool, cloudy and raining.

   I was even in Quebec last weekend, and it was a beautiful late spring day, only partly cloudy without a hint of smoke.

   I guess the prevailing winds have mostly spared us.

   So, to answer your question, the fires have been a non-issue.

7. My parents are on the Rhode Island border in MA and a little hazy is what they’ve got too.

   I’m in the New York part of Connecticut and it’s been pretty bad, but my brother in Philly has had it several times worse than anywhere in New England.

   My brother in Philadelphia has had it several times worse than anywhere in New England.

8. I have family at the end of Long Island (yes, I know NY isn’t part of NE, but they share waters with RI & CT), and on Wednesday, my cousin said they hadn’t seen a blue sky in 3 days. All outdoor activities for schools and recreational sports were canceled or postponed. She said it looked apocalyptic, felt eerie, and was worrying her kids. One of the first days, the whole area smelled like smoke/ bonfire, and someone’s fire alarm was going off, but they drove around and asked neighbors, and no one’s house was on fire or doing a burn…. It was all from the wildfires.

   I live in SC and it was hazy the past 2 days, a little mixed today, but Wednesday we were absolutely warned to stay inside, windows shut.

9. I work outside and by the end of the day yesterday my chest hurt. 10 hours outside without a mask

10. It’s been more of a Baltimore through NYC issue than New England.

    Wednesday was pretty bad, the air was very hazy and even just briefly opening the door was a blast of bonfire scented air. Our AQI peaked at 486 which apparently is not good. My kid’s preschool cancelled outdoor activities and in general everyone just sat inside with the windows closed. There even seemed to be fewer cars on the road.

    Yesterday was OK and improved a lot by late afternoon. Today is back to healthy air quality, at least in my area, though it’s still hazy.

11. Was tough for a few days, I have asthma and my chest was killing, even inside. But it seems to be easing up, not nearly as bad as New York

12. here in vermont it was very hazy three days ago and smelled a bit smoky. now it’s all fine.

13. I’m a bit sensitive to smells and such.
    I had a weird cough while trying to garden the last couple days and am awfully sniffly.

    I think it may be related.

14. FYI, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland are Mid-Atlantic, not New England. (Some people also put Virginia in this category but I think most would consider them Southern.)

15. I feel like this might be a useful thread to remind everybody of what New England is. New England is the six states east of New York. New York, New Jersey, and every other state south or west of New York is not New England.

16. Not in New England, but at one point on Wednesday morning, Detroit’s air quality index was worse than NYC’s due to smoke from new wildfires in central Ontario blowing due south overnight. I had forgotten to close all of the windows on Tuesday night, so we woke up with headaches and plugged sinuses and part of the house smelled like a stale campfire. Every time we went outside on Wednesday, we ended up coughing with itchy eyes and throats, and all windows had to stay closed. We were able to open them again last night.

    We’re still under an air quality alert until noon today, but I expect that won’t be extended as the wind has shifted direction a bit and the grayish-white sky we’ve had all week is blue again.

    EDIT: I was wrong, they’ve extended the air quality alert to midnight, and I just had to close the windows shortly after opening them due to coughing. The air has a weird stale smoke odor with a hint of burned plastic. Our [air quality index](https://www.iqair.com/us/world-air-quality-ranking) is currently ranked 18th worst among global major cities, below Toronto but above NYC. Guess I’m not taking a 3-mile walk outdoors this afternoon.

17. The Boston area basically got no smoke, just mild haze and not enough to smell. New England in general got it pretty mild compared to other states west of us.

18. From the greater Boston area: what smoke?

19. I’m out in Ohio, we’ve been under air quality advisories for a week now. Despite being forecasted as sunny, today is actually the first day in a long time I’ve seen blue skies. They had just been looking gray/overcast. Healthy wise, it’s mostly been a non-issue. My wife and I both noticed some coughing and some eye irritation when we were at our kids soccer game on Wednesday, I’d guess smoke related but could have been allergies too.

    We are getting some amazing sun rise/sets out of it though, so that’s been good.

20. It was gray and overcast for a few days last week. If I didn’t see anything on the news about wildfire smoke, I would have assumed it was just our typical weather.

21. Doing completely fine, but can you make the rain go away?

22. It was fairly thick on Tuesday, thick enough that it smelled like a bonfire, made the setting sun deep red and made the moon full on bright orange. After that day though, it’s thinned out enough that I can no longer smell it, though the clouds are still more yellowish than they ought to be.

23. Born and raised in Washington State, recently moved to the NE and thought “well at least I won’t be dealing with the BC fires anymore”

    Bad air quality index is 200, yesterday here it was 444.

24. From what I’ve heard, it’s mostly affecting the mid Atlantic region. New England overall, especially north of Boston isn’t too bad.

    For reference, I currently live in southern new Hampshire and work in Lowell, mass. There are barely any effects in new Hampshire and only a little bit of haze in northern mass.

25. VT was pretty bad a few days ago, barely noticeable now.

26. Mid atlantic not new york but its hitting us down here too

27. It’s fine here, tbh. It’s a bit cloudy for the summer ig, but idk if that even has anything to do with the wildfires. It’s New York that’s getting fucked.