NYC Air Quality: June 6th-8th, 2023 - When We Briefly Became Beijing
Ah, June 2023 in New York City. You remember it well, right? The month that delivered weather hotter than a dragon's breath and humidity thicker than a slice of cheesecake. But this wasn't your average summer scorcher, folks. No, this was the summer where Mother Nature decided to throw NYC a wild smoke inhalation party.
Tuesday, June 6th: The Haze Before the Storm (Literally)
Woke up on Tuesday morning, bleary-eyed and craving that first sip of coffee. But something felt...off. The air, usually thick with the scent of exhaust fumes and bodega breakfast sandwiches, smelled different. It was a dry, dusty kind of different, like someone had vacuumed the Sahara Desert and forgotten to empty the canister. Then you stepped outside and saw it: a haze hanging over the city, like a forgotten Instagram filter.
Check your phone. Yep, there it is: an air quality alert screaming in all caps about "UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS." Sensitive groups? Try EVERYONE'S lungs were feeling a little sensitive that day.
Wednesday, June 7th: Hold My Beer, That's Not Smog, That's Mordor
By Wednesday, things had gone from bad to worse, or as New Yorkers like to say, "from a two-slice Tuesday to a three-slice Wednesday with a side of existential dread." The air quality index, that magical number that tells you how much pollution is chilling in the atmosphere, shot up past 480. For reference, anything above 300 is considered "hazardous." We were officially off the charts, folks. Think Beijing on a bad day, but with better bagels.
The news reports were having a field day. Headlines like "NYC Now Has the Worst Air Quality in the World" and "Can We Interest You in a Respirator with Your Morning Coffee?" became the norm. Schools shut down faster than you can say "asthma attack," and even the pigeons seemed to be wearing tiny gas masks.
Thursday, June 8th: The Long Goodbye (to Fresh Air)
Thankfully, by Thursday, the air quality had begun to improve. But those three days were a wild ride, a cautionary tale of what happens when Mother Nature gets a hankering for some takeout from a particularly smoky barbecue joint.
So, there you have it. The not-so-fond memory of NYC's brief stint as a smog-filled metropolis. A time when the only thing clearer than the Empire State Building was the fact that we needed to take better care of our planet (and maybe invest in some decent air purifiers).
