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- Currently in Boston — June 15, 2023: More showers in the forecast.
Currently in Boston — June 15, 2023: More showers in the forecast.
Plus, new data show Black and Brown New Yorkers suffered the most from wildfire smoke
Eric Holthaus & Dave Epstein
June 14, 2023
The weather, currently.
More showers in the forecast.
Severe weather moved through the region during Wednesday evening. This will be followed by a mostly cloudy day for Thursday but not much chance of any shower activity. Temperatures will reach to between 75 and 80 in the afternoon. There might be a couple of showers developing Friday afternoon as clouds increase in temperatures again stay near 80°. Humidity levels will be noticeable but not oppressive. On Saturday a weather system brings a renewed chance for showers and thunderstorms. I think these will be more widespread and temperatures will be cooler reaching only around 70°. For Father's Day I'm expecting a blend of clouds and sunshine and just an isolated shower.
What you need to know, currently.
New data show marginalized New Yorkers were affected the most from wildfire smoke during this month’s orange skies — the worst wildfire-related pollution event in recorded US history.
Asthma ER visits surged in NYC by 10% during the period from June 7-9 when the smoke was the worst, and followed a demographic pattern that is too-familiar when it comes to racial and income disparities in public health and climate.
Here’s Arya Sundaram, from Gothamist:
The foul air from Canada’s wildfires was bad all over, but the impact hit hardest in neighborhoods in northern Manhattan, the Bronx, central Brooklyn, and the Rockaways, which had the highest number of asthma-related emergency department visits, according to the data.
Between Tuesday, when the city’s air quality reached unhealthy levels, and Saturday there were over 1,000 asthma-related emergency department visits across the city, according to data from the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. That’s a 10% jump from the same period last year.
Some 70% of the asthma-related visits during the period were in ZIP codes with predominantly Black or Hispanic residents. And 60% were in ZIP codes with higher poverty rates than the city overall.
Compounding health effects from pollution and climate change fall hardest on communities of color for many reasons, writes Gina Jiménez from Inside Climate News: They are often pushed to live in polluted neighborhoods due to racist housing policies, they are less likely to be able to access preventative health care due to lack of funding, and suffer climate-related mental health problems more acutely as a result.
Climate equity is the same thing as racial equity.
What you can do, currently.
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Thank you for taking this exciting journey with us!
—Eric Holthaus