New Delhi: Smoke from Canada\u2019s ongoing wildfires has pushed air quality into the \u201cunhealthy\u201d range across parts of the United States, raising concerns ahead of Sunday\u2019s FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina at the New York-New Jersey Stadium.<\/p>\n
Air Quality Index (AQI) readings have climbed into unhealthy levels in several cities, including Detroit and Chicago, as smoke from the fires spread southward. The deteriorating air quality has prompted questions over whether the World Cup\u2019s showpiece event could face disruption.<\/p>\n
However, atmospheric scientist Dan Westervelt of Columbia University\u2019s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said current forecasts suggest conditions should improve before the final.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAQI or Air Quality Indices are very much in the unhealthy range, unhealthy for all groups, not just sensitive groups,\u201d Westervelt told Reuters.<\/p>\n
He compared the current smoke event to 2023, when poor air quality forced the postponement of several sporting events, including a New York Yankees baseball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a smoke event really bad that was reminiscent of this in 2023 and that did postpone some sporting events. The Yankees, for example, cancelled the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Westervelt, however, said rain forecast for Saturday across the New York tri-state area is expected to improve conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Saturday there is rain in the forecast for the Tri-State New York area\u2026 we do have a ceiling on how bad this could get by Saturday. I am expecting that by Saturday, with the rain, things should be a little bit better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that shifting winds should also carry much of the smoke away from the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first big wave of smoke that we\u2019ve seen will also have cleared out\u2026 it will have gone over into the ocean, transporting further downwind.\u201d<\/p>\n
At present, Westervelt said he does not expect the deteriorating air quality to significantly affect World Cup events over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, I wouldn\u2019t necessarily expect there to be major disruption to the Saturday and Sunday World Cup events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tournament organisers have not announced any changes to the schedule of the\u00a0 World Cup final.<\/p>\n
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi: Smoke from Canada\u2019s ongoing wildfires has pushed air quality into the \u201cunhealthy\u201d range across parts of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22021,43206,14203,17,2867,15822],"class_list":["post-134490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-air-pollution","tag-air-quality-index","tag-argentina","tag-canada","tag-canada-wildfires","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}