This week, wildfires raging in Canada have forced tens of millions of North Americans to go outside wearing masks. Thick orange smoke has filled many cities, including New York. On Thursday morning, the air quality in this American metropolis was the worst in the world, according to the monitoring service IQAIR. Our correspondent reports on life in a city shrouded in orange smog.
“The darkness that came from the Mediterranean has engulfed the city despised by the prosecutor,” noted former Leningrader and former stock market correspondent for the BBC’s Russian service Natalya Gabdullina on Wednesday. Ivan Bloshenko, a native of Moscow who works at night as a forklift driver near New York, noted that the moon was red this week. New York,” sang Frank Sinatra, “is a city that never sleeps, that is, it shines with lights around the clock. So Gabdullina, who lives on the West Side of Manhattan and sleeps at night, missed the reddening of the moon. But she noticed that her throat was itching and noted that during the pandemic, masks were supposed to be worn indoors and could be taken off outside, “and now it’s the opposite. I coughed several times unexpectedly, but at first I didn’t think much of it. Asthmatics find it harder to cope with what is happening. Doctors are also urging the media to protect children, the elderly and people with heart problems. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of people in emergency rooms. Not everyone immediately understood where the fire was, so there was also an increase in calls to the police.
Social networks are filled with amateur photos of skyscrapers shrouded in orange clouds, although they are actually much more orange in photos than in real life. I first noticed them last week when they hung over the opposite shore of the strait between Connecticut and Long Island. Before that, I had seen New Haven on the horizon for many years, and suddenly it was gone. On Tuesday, I noticed that some Manhattanites were still wearing masks on the streets, even though the COVID pandemic seemed to be over. On Wednesday, the majority of pedestrians were already wearing masks, and many were not just wearing flimsy surgical masks that let small particles through, but serious N95 masks that are so good that I personally start choking in them after three minutes.
On Wednesday, I smelled the smell of smoke that last permeated Manhattan from September 11 to December 2001, after hijacked planes brought down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and something smoldered endlessly in their ruins. Wednesday was gloomy, like before a downpour, but not a single drop fell on New York as the sun shone above the smoky cloud. In the middle of Wednesday it was almost dusk in the city. “Darkness at Noon” came to mind, the English title of Arthur Koestler’s book, known in Russian as “Слепящая тьма” (Blinding Darkness).
As the sun failed to break through the smoky cloud that enveloped the East Coast and Midwest of the United States, the temperature dropped to 5 degrees Celsius overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, and workers at the factory near Bloshenko put on sweaters. The sensor Ivan had installed in his SUV showed that the tire pressure had dropped significantly. On Thursday, the sun had already broken through the haze, although there was still something cloudy in the air that prevented distant objects from being seen. After four o’clock, the skies became cloudy again, and the smell of smoke in New York intensified. In California, where colossal forest fires have long been commonplace, the tendency of East Coasters to dramatize everything is mocked, as can be seen on social networks. But our region is home to almost all of America’s major media outlets, so it’s not surprising. Pranksters have also become more active on social networks, for example, posting photos of infernal clouds with the question “Is there life on Mars?
We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The Episodes End of story: Podcast Advertising. Several New York City schools canceled classes and graduation ceremonies, and some popular Broadway shows, including Hamilton and Camelot, were affected when several actors did not show up for work because of the smoke. Performances of the Shakespeare in the Park series in the vast Central Park area were suspended, and departures and arrivals at some local airports were delayed by an hour. Newspapers, as always, are full of useful advice – from recommendations to block window cracks with towels and minimize going outside, to instructions on how to set up a “clean room” at home, where it is desirable to spend most of one’s time. In Manhattan, where many apartments are, to put it mildly, small, this is more difficult than in other areas of the vast city. It is not recommended to have “clean rooms” in the kitchen because some cooking oils themselves release something toxic into the air. Similar accusations are made against gas stoves, which are now being replaced by electric stoves. It has been announced that Canadian smoke has already reduced the life expectancy of the average New Yorker by one hour.
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