NEW YORK, NY — Smoke from Canadian wild fires has caused so much air pollution that Major League Baseball has decided it’s not safe to stage a game in Yankee Stadium Wednesday night. The game between the Yankees and Chicago White Sox has been called off.

In a Tweet, the Yankees said, “Tonight’s Yankees-White Sox game (Wednesday, June 7) is rescheduled because of poor air quality due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires and will be made up tomorrow, Thursday, June 8, as the first game of a single-admission doubleheader, which will begin at 4:05pm.”

Air quality in the New York City area and across parts of Pennsylvania and southern New York reached levels marked as “hazardous” due to fires in Canada.

The smoke is expected to thin out as seen in this forecast model for Thursday.

One reason these fires are producing so much smoke is that the material that is burning does also contain plenty of moisture.

The organic material on the forest floor such as leaves, branches and even moss are referred to as duff. Environment Canada tracks the amount of moisture in the duff layer. The fire regions in the areas north and east of the Great Lakes have a decent bit of moisture in the duff, which means the fire burns less efficiently but creates more smoke.

In a Tweet about this topic, meteorologist Chris Jackson points out an example of burning two piles of leaves in your yard. If you add water to one pile, it will burn but also create more smoke.

Air quality in the WOWK viewing area has been in the high end of the moderate range to almost the unhealthy range for sensitive groups.

Smoke conditions are expected to improve for a day as wind patterns shift in the WOWK-TV area as well as in the Northeast.

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