Air quality on Long Island better but not good; some smoke from Canadian wildfires returns

By Saturday evening the region's air quality was better than it was three days ago, but it still was not good.

New York’s air quality was no longer the world’s worst because of Canadian wildfire smoke,  but some of the pollution did blow back Saturday.

Just after 9 p.m. Saturday most of Long Island had "moderate" ozone and particulate matter pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s airnow.gov website. The air was mostly pollution free on the East End.

Winds from the south could bring some smoke and haze back to Long Island on Saturday evening into Sunday, National Weather Service meteorologist Dominic Ramunni said Saturday evening.

“Fortunately, I don’t think we’re going to be repeating anything close to what we experienced Wednesday,” Ramunni said. “I don’t even think folks will be able to tell.”

He described the dangerous AQI numbers earlier in the week as “anomalous,” but cautioned that hazy conditions could persist.

“As we go through the next several weeks here — and really, much of the summer — as long as these fires continue to burn out of control … we can certainly imagine scenarios where this happens again,” Ramunni said. 

Canada is battling the worst wildfire season in the country’s history. In Quebec alone, where there is record heat and drought, more than 160 blazes are reported.