Wednesday’s air is gross; Thursday’s should be better

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Wednesday is the worst air quality we’ve seen in Central New York in over 20 years. The smoke you see and smell is most likely the worst it might ever get for our area. At times Wednesday, the Air Quality Index exceeded a level of 400 which put us into the hazardous category.

With levels that high it is recommended to limit outdoor activities and spend the day primarily indoors.

The big question: When is it going to get better?

The answer is it will be better Thursday. The worst should be over.

That’s good news for people planning to go to the Chris Stapleton concert at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview.

It’s doubtful that the smoke will be gone entirely. There might still be some haze in the sky and air quality indices could still exceed a level of 100.

In the big picture, a storm now over Nova Scotia is forecast to move westward through Maine. That will mean more clouds Thursday, and perhaps an isolated rain shower for Central New York.

But more importantly, the area of thick smoke will be directed more toward Western New York.

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