Canadian wildfire smoke cooled New York by 3 degrees and trapped air toxicants

ANDREW SMITH / RUTGERS TODAY – When smoke from Canadian wildfires turned New York City skies apocalyptically orange in June 2023, it delivered catastrophic air quality and an unexpected side effect: cooling the New York City region by about 3 degrees Celsius.

This temperature drop, called “global dimming,” which is the opposite of “global warming,” trapped dangerous pollutants near the ground, according to Rutgers Health researchers who published their breakthrough findings in Nature’s Communications Earth & Environment …