Toronto, on July 15, 2026, had the dirtiest air of any major city on Earth. IQAir, the Swiss air quality technology company, ranked it ahead of Kinshasa and Delhi. New York came in fifth.
By Friday the smoke from Canada’s wildfires had moved deep into the United States. Detroit and Chicago both posted air quality index readings in the “hazardous” range, DW reported, and the New York metro area sat under a smoke-tinted haze rated unhealthy for sensitive groups.
What the forecasters said
The National Weather Service warned that conditions could worsen overnight into Saturday morning. Meteorologist Peter Mullinax, cited by AFP, said wind over the Great Lakes region could push more smoke into the Northeast and keep skies hazy there. Some air quality forecasters worried that weekend weather systems would blow still more smoke south.
USA Today described the scene as “blackened skies and an apocalyptic orange haze” returning to both countries, with toxic smoke from out-of-control fires creating hazardous conditions for millions of people.
The fires
The Canadian government counted around 903 active fires on Friday, 122 of them out of control. So far 2.784 million hectares (roughly 6.8 million acres) have burned. USA Today, counting across North America, put the number of active fires at nearly 900 and the area scorched since January at about six million acres.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday night that the situation had “escalated significantly over the last three weeks across the country, and particularly in Northwestern Ontario.” He added: “Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their communities, not knowing if their homes will survive.”
Trump blames Ottawa
President Donald Trump turned the smoke into a trade dispute. He said he was “holding Canada responsible” and threatened higher tariffs to cover the “cost of this pollution.” On Truth Social he wrote that Canada was “not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” and that the US was being “unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” He said he would contact Canada’s prime minister to find out what Ottawa planned to do.
The smoke also reached the World Cup. Organizers said they were “monitoring closely” the conditions around the final between Spain and Argentina, due at New York New Jersey Stadium. Andrew Giuliani, the White House World Cup task force executive director, told a briefing that a National Weather Service staffer sits in FIFA headquarters for exactly this purpose.
Sources
- Canada wildfires: Smoke choking major US cities
- Maps show air quality, smoke, and wildfires across the US and Canada
