‘Looks can be deceiving’: Toronto’s sky seems clearer but poor air quality persists, meteorologist says

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Toronto’s smoky conditions have not yet improved enough to reopen outdoor facilities, including pools, city officials say.

As of Friday morning, Canada’s largest city remains under an air quality warning, orange alert, for the third consecutive day.

• Your hourly forecast on our CP24.com weather hub
• What Ontario and the U.S. look like due to the wildfire smoke

Global air quality tracker IQAir currently ranks the city’s air quality as the fifth worst in the world today among major urban centres.

“Smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario continues to result in very poor air quality along with reduced visibility this morning,” Environment Canada said in its weather advisory.

“There may be temporary improvement this afternoon however very poor air quality will return to all regions this evening and may persist into the weekend.”

Experts are continuing to urge people to limit the amount of time they spend outdoors.

“Reschedule or cancel outdoor sports, activities and events,” the advisory read.

“You may experience mild and common symptoms such as eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches or a mild cough. More serious but less common symptoms include wheezing, chest pains or severe cough.”

For those who must be outside, Environment Canada notes that a “well-constructed, well-fitting, and properly worn respirator type mask,” such as an N95 mask, should be warn to reduce exposure to harmful fine particles in the air.

The City of Toronto noted that pool closures and changes to outdoor recreation programs will continue until the orange alert is lifted.

CP24 Meteorologist Bill Coulter said while the sky may look more normal today, the air quality is still very poor this morning.

“Much like yesterday, looks can be deceiving,” he said.

He said the conditions will briefly improve this afternoon.

“The winds have gone from north to northeasterly and they’ll shift to southeasterly, which will gradually just push the worst of the air just a little bit to the west, which is why we have seen areas on the east side of this change to yellow, which is a slightly lesser impact,” he said.

“But it won’t last all that long. We’ll get back into a southwesterly wind that will reintroduce poor air quality late in the day and this evening. So you may get a bit of a reprieve midday afternoon and then back into the bad stuff tonight.”