Will smoke from Canada fire affect Florida? What to know about weather, flights, health

The Canadian wildfire has generated air quality alerts in the United States for large portions of the Northeast, Midwest and South.

Among the affected cities: New York, Philadelphia and Washington. Air quality alerts extended as far south as the Carolinas and west to Indiana.

“New York reached historically bad levels, climbing into the most severe tier of the Environmental Protection Agency’s six-tier index,” the New York Times reported.

Now the big question: Will the smoke make it farther south to Florida as people hit the road for summer travel at the end of the school year?

Here’s what to know:

Is Canada wildfire smoke coming to Miami area?

According to the National Weather Service, Florida shouldn’t see or smell smoke from the drifting wildfire in Canada.

“We’re not expecting it to make it all the way down,” said meteorologist Anthony Reynes. “Generally across South Florida winds are from the southwest, so it’s going to keep bringing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.”

That means more rain Thursday and Friday and scattered storms over the weekend and into the workweek.

“The winds aloft should push the smoke plume eastward into the Atlantic well north of our area,” the weather service in Miami said on Twitter.

Air quality alerts for road trips through Florida?

Thursday and Friday are the last days of public school for Miami-Dade and Broward students, so families may head out for vacations around the state, including trips to Disney in Central Florida.

The weather service in Orlando isn’t warning of smoke, Reynes said. Orlando’s potential weather issues Thursday through Sunday include potentially strong thunderstorms that could bring gusty winds of 40 to 55 mph, small hail, and torrential downpours, the weather service said in a hazardous weather alert. “A brief tornado seems less likely today, but should parameters come together, the best chance would be near the coast,” Melbourne meteorologists Tim Sedlock and Zach Law said in their Thursday weather alert for the Orlando area.

“Our wind flow is from the west to the east, but the smoke is far north of us, so it is unlikely much will reach us,” WFLA chief meteorologist Jeffrey Berardelli said in a News Channel 8 report from Tampa. “There is some small chance that by Saturday a thin smoky haze will pass through north-central Florida, but by the time it reaches this far south, it will be so thinned out that it won’t be very noticeable.”

There are no weather service smoke alerts for Gainesville through Jacksonville, just a chance of summer storms.

Is the smoke affecting flights to and from Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports?

Be prepared for some smoke-related delays at South Florida airports.

“Based on the FAA’s tweets and ongoing updates today, it’s likely there will be impacts at airports nationwide to flights arriving and departing certain destinations along the northeast U.S. coast,” Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport spokeswoman Arlene Satchell told the Miami Herald.

“We will likely need to take steps to manage the flow of traffic safely into New York City, D.C., Philadelphia and Charlotte,” the Federal Aviation Administration said on Twitter.

“The best advice to anyone traveling to/from FLL to any of the impacted destinations is to check with their airlines for the latest flight status before heading to the airport,” Satchell said in an email. You can also check FAA reports via https://nasstatus.faa.gov.

“Flights between MIA and the New York area are on-time for the most part today,” Greg Chin, spokesman for Miami International Airport told the Herald Thursday, but also advised checking with your airline.

MIA flight information can be checked via https://webvids.miami-airport.com/webfids.

How to protect yourself from air pollution

The effect of this wildfire “could be a public health crisis of mammoth proportions,” University of Miami public health, climate, and aerosol scientists who track and study the impacts of air pollution said in a report released Thursday.

That’s because the emissions from such fires are not contained to the burn area.

People with allergies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, and asthma are most at risk . But the disruptive nature of such widespread smoke can affect healthy people, too, the researchers said.

Though the smoke is not currently a threat to South Florida, researchers have advice for people traveling to New York or other parts of the U.S. or Canada where smoke is affecting air quality.

Pratim Biswas, dean of the College of Engineering at UM and one of the founding members of the Center for Aerosol Science and Technology, suggested wearing a mask.

“The best way to protect yourself if you have to go outside is to wear a filter mask,” Biswas said in the report. “One of the best is the N95 mask, but anything is better than nothing. So, the surgical masks may be good if that’s all you can find. If you are immunocompromised or have asthma, it could trigger serious conditions, so those individuals should definitely be masked.”

South Florida weather forecast

Smoke won’t be the issue, but frequent thunderstorms are forecast every day for the next week, with gusty winds over 20 mph in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas. Lightning, heavy rains and a chance for localized flooding are also possible.

Thursday and Friday will be the wettest. “The weekend should decrease a little bit,” Reynes said.

Thursday storm chance Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 70%.

Friday storm chance Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 70%.

Saturday storm chance Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 40%.

Sunday storm chance Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 50%.

Monday storm chance Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 60%.

When it’s not raining it will be hot with temperatures approaching 90 with lows in the mid-70s at night. But “peak heat indices will likely exceed 100 degrees early next week with localized values approaching 105 degrees,” the weather service warned for the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas.

The Florida Keys will also see isolated to scattered thunderstorms with storm chances at 50% Thursday, 30% Friday, 20% Saturday and 30% Sunday.