Vehicles drive along the 401 as wildfire smoke rolls across Toronto on Wednesday. Environment Canada says the poor air quality may last until Thursday as drifting smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario blanket the province.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Smoke from northern Ontario wildfires turned Toronto’s skyline an eerie shade of orange on Wednesday as air quality warnings across southern parts of the province raised health concerns and prompted outdoor event cancellations.
Environment Canada’s air quality warnings stretched from Thunder Bay to Kingston and down to London as several First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario are under mandatory evacuation orders due to forest fires.
Many of the wildfires are threatening areas around Lake Nipigon, north of Thunder Bay, and the smoke plumes have stretched across the U.S.-Canada border, prompting health warnings in New York state.
New York City began feeling the effects days before neighbouring New Jersey is scheduled to host the World Cup final on Sunday. Local authorities issued an alert as air quality reached an unhealthy level and urged residents to reduce “strenuous outdoor activity” and take extra breaks if they are outside on Wednesday and Thursday.
The National Weather Service said smoke could linger into the end of the week. IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, ranked Toronto as having the worst air quality across the globe, surpassing Kinshasa and Delhi.
New York ranked No. 5. Wildfire smoke from Northern Canada has been a common summer occurrence across wide swaths of the United States in recent years.
Jean-Philippe Bégin, an Environment Canada meteorologist, said winds from the northwest will continue to blanket southern Ontario with smoke until at least Friday, when they are expected to change direction and blow northward.
That shift would then put communities north of the fires in the crosshairs, he said.
How poor air quality can affect your health, and how to protect yourself
“It’s only displacing the problem,” Bégin said, “as long as the forest fires are not under control and they emit very large quantities of fine particles.”
The yellow-orange haze of particles in Toronto’s air is particularly bad and can impact people’s health, Bégin said.
Environment Canada is warning that the risk of smoke inhalation is most acute for children, people who are older or pregnant, and those with chronic illnesses. It’s encouraging people to limit their time outdoors and watch for symptoms of throat irritation, headache and cough, and more serious impacts like wheezing and chest pains.
Events across Toronto have been cancelled due to poor air quality and heat warnings, including the FIFA Fan Festival, a planned broadcast of the England-Argentina semi-final World Cup game in Nathan Phillips Square, and an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in High Park.
In the New York City area, more than 80,000 people are expected to attend the World Cup final at an open-air stadium in New Jersey on Sunday. Another 50,000 plan to watch the game from Central Park in Manhattan, where skies appeared hazy.
The city has also closed all wading pools, citing health concerns for young children, though outdoor pools will remain open.
Pat Kehs, a tourist visiting Toronto from Washington, D.C., said he was surprised to see conditions in the city change so quickly after enjoying the last few days of sunny, blue skies.
“Is this the apocalypse now? What’s going on here?” Kehs recalled thinking as he woke up on Wednesday and looked out of his hotel window. “This morning it was like a war zone.”
The Government of Canada has said that wildfire season began more slowly in 2026 than in 2023 or 2025–the two worst seasons for wildfires–but warned that fires were likely due to warmer than usual temperatures across the country.
Some 835 active fires were burning in the country on Wednesday, and 112 according were considered out of control, according to the government. So far, 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) have burned. Most of the fires were in the central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
Toronto resident Jason Wang, who wore a face mask as he spoke to The Canadian Press, said he’s never seen air pollution this bad in his 10 years living in the city.
“It’s summer, and I wanted to go out because today is my day off,” he said. “It’s depressing ... I didn’t expect this.”
Wang said he will likely keep the mask on for the next few days to protect himself because he has a family history of respiratory illness.
Respirators such as N95, KN95 or KF94 masks can help prevent the fine particles of wildfire smoke from being inhaled into the lungs, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The poor air quality comes as large swaths of Ontario are dealing with the second day of a heat wave that pushed humidex values as high as 45 degrees in some areas Tuesday.
You might hear the Canadian term thrown around weather forecasts, especially during extreme heat. It helps explain why the temperature on your thermometer might not match how hot you actually feel. The Globe’s Alex Migdal breaks it down.
Alex Migdal/The Globe and Mail
The extreme heat broke a temperature record in downtown Toronto, where mercury soared to 37.6 C, according to data released by Environment Canada. The previous record was set in 1995 with a temperature of 35.6 C.
When extreme heat occurs alongside poor air quality, Environment Canada advises people to prioritize keeping cool.
Bégin said a low-pressure system expected to bring rain across many regions on Friday could bring relief to firefighting efforts in northwestern Ontario and improve air quality by cleaning out particles in the air.
The meteorologist said air quality levels will continue to fluctuate in the region as the wildfires blaze.
Forest fire officials said there are 148 active wildland fires in the northwest of Ontario as of Tuesday evening, including 69 fires that are not under control.
With report from Reuters