Flights are grounded in LaGuardia as smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets the northeast

Flights have been grounded at La Guardia and Philadelphia International Airports as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to ravage the northeast.

More than 600 flights in the US were delayed Thursday morning, and the number is expected to rise after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered East Coast airports to halt operations due to poor visibility.

New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia are suffocated by air quality ratings worse than the most polluted cities in the world, such as Lahore, Pakistan and Delhi, India.

School districts in New Jersey and New York announced closures or updated schedules, while multiple states, including Pennsylvania — which has become the new epicenter — issued “code red” advisories for residents to stay indoors.

The dangerous air sparked new travel woes as the FAA warned travelers that several East Coast cities were likely to experience delays.

Reduced visibility due to smoke from forest fires will continue to affect air traffic today. We will likely need to take steps to safely manage traffic flow into New York City, DC, Philadelphia and Charlotte,” the federal agency tweeted early Thursday.

As the dangerous smog continues to choke the East Coast, here are the latest developments;

Winsor Township – about 70 miles west of Philadelphia – is the most affected area in the country with a particulate matter (PM2.5) rating of 457. That dwarfs Delhi’s notoriously dirty air with a rating of 316.

Hundreds of wildfires across Canada have scorched 9.4 million acres and forced 120,000 people from their homes in an unusually early and intense start to the wildfire season.

And with weather systems barely expected to budge, the smoky blanket billowing from Quebec and Nova Scotia sending plumes of fine particles to North Carolina and northern Europe should last through Thursday and possibly the weekend.

That means at least another day, or more, of a dystopian detour that has chased players from ballfields and actors from Broadway stages, delayed thousands of flights, and sparked a resurgence in mask-wearing and remote working — and that all while raising concerns about the health effects of prolonged exposure to such bad air.

The weather system driving out the big Canada-American smoke — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — “is likely to stick around for at least the next few days,” said meteorologist Bryan Ramsey of the U.S. National Weather Service.

“Conditions are likely to remain unhealthy, at least until the wind direction changes or the fires are extinguished,” Ramsey said. “As the fires are raging – they are very big – they are likely to continue for weeks. But it’s really just about the wind shift.’

In the eastern U.S., officials on Thursday warned residents to stay indoors and again limit or avoid outdoor activities, extending “Code Red” air quality warnings in some places for a third straight day as winds the smoke-filled air continued to push south.

The smoke has been traveling over Greenland and Iceland since June 1 and was expected to reach Norway on Thursday, the Norwegian Institute for Climate and Environmental Research said, but was not expected to pose a health risk.

In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has ordered schools to cancel outdoor recess, sports and field trips on Thursday. In a Philadelphia suburb, officials have set up an emergency shelter so people living outside can shelter from the haze.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the state is making one million N95 masks — the kind prevalent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — available at state facilities, including 400,000 in New York City. She also called on residents to stay.

“You don’t have to go out and take a walk. You don’t have to push the baby in the stroller,” Hochul said Wednesday night. “This is not a safe time to do that.”

The message may get through. So far on Wednesday, officials said New York City has not yet seen an increase in 911 calls related to respiratory problems and cardiac arrests.

More than 400 fires across Canada have displaced 20,000 people. The US has sent more than 600 firefighters and equipment to Canada. Other countries are also helping.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by phone with President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Trudeau’s office said he thanked Biden for his support and that both leaders “recognized the need to work together to address the devastating impacts of climate change.”

Canadian officials say this will be the nation’s worst wildfire season on record. It started early on drier-than-normal terrain and quickly accelerated. Smoke from the fires has been moving into the US since last month, but increased with recent fires in Quebec, where about 100 were deemed uncontrollable Wednesday.

“I can taste the sky,” Dr. Ken Strumpf said in a Facebook post from Syracuse, New York, where the sky was given the colorful nickname of the local university: Orange.

The smoke was so thick in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, that office towers across the Ottawa River were barely visible. In Toronto, Yili Ma said her walking group canceled a planned hike this week and was forgoing the restaurant patios that are a beloved summer tradition in a country known for harsh winters.

“I put my mask away for over a year and now I put my mask on since yesterday,” Mother complained.

Eastern Quebec received some rain on Wednesday, but Montreal-based Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault said no significant rain is expected for days in remote areas of central Quebec, where wildfires are more intense.

In the US, federal officials on Wednesday interrupted some flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport and delayed planes to Newark and Philadelphia because smoke reduced visibility.

Major League Baseball Yankees and Phillies games were postponed. On Broadway, “Hamilton” and “Camelot” canceled Wednesday performances, and “Prima Facie” star Jodie Comer left a matinee after 10 minutes due to breathing difficulties. The show started with an understudy, show publicists said.

It wouldn’t be on the Central Park outdoor stage either. Shakespeare in the Park canceled performances of ‘Hamlet’ on Thursday and Friday, saying it is not nobler in spirit to suffer the slings and arrows of the wretched air.