Millions of Americans still affected by Canadian wildfires

Millions of Americans remained under air quality warnings on Friday, as smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires began to dissipate in the north-eastern US.

Moderate to unhealthy air quality continues to linger across a swath of the country, from the midwest to the Atlantic coast, the National Weather Service said.

On Thursday night the Biden administration postponed a planned LGBTQ event at the White House, while public schools in New York City and Philadelphia implemented remote learning on Friday. Smoke impacted air quality in North Carolina as far south as North Carolina, while fires still blazed, many out of control, across swathes of Canada.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to be transported south by winds to the US causing moderate to unhealthy air quality in parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley and Midwest on Friday, the National Weather Service said.

Canada's near-surface wildfire smoke associated with the Great Lakes is expected to continue plaguing regions from the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic with reduced air quality.

Northwesterly flow around a low pressure system over the Northeast will continue the flow of smoke over the region, but should relax and eventually shift to more of a westerly direction on Saturday. New York City, which at times on Wednesday and Thursday had the worst air quality of any major city in the world, improved conditions on Friday morning, AirNow, a government website, said. That put the city at a moderate ranking, according to Air Now; at points this week, New York topped 400 on the air quality index, meaning the air was classed as hazardous, while Connecticut officials in Bridgeport activated the city s cooling centers protocol normally used only on the hottest days so residents could escape the unhealthy air at designated library branches and senior centers.

Joe Biden postponed a Pride month celebration on the White House lawn on Thursday because of poor air quality in Washington. The event will instead be held on Saturday. The event is intended as an important demonstration of support for LGBTQ people at a time when the community is under attack from Republican-run state legislatures across the nation.

It remains unclear when more than 12,000 Canadians displaced by the encroaching flames will be able to return home, the Quebec public security minister Fran ois Bonnardel said in a statement.

There has been no reports of injuries or deaths, or damage to homes from the wildfires, Bonnardel said. No rain is forecast until next week, but temperatures are expected to rise.

Some are under control, some not, Bonnardel said. We have evacuated 12600 people in Quebec, mostly in the north of Quebec. We are looking at these fires every hour, we are hoping to tell Quebecers they will be able to go back home, but in the short term it won t be possible. More than 639,000 hectares have burned in Quebec, the worst fire season in Quebec history.