Canada wildfire updates: Flights cancelled as smoke engulfs New York

Some flights bound for New York have been cancelled as wildfire smoke from Canada engulfed the city.

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flights from the northeast, Ohio, and Mid-Atlantic bound for La Guardia airport in New York, citing reduced visibility and an impact on US flights.

New York City had the worst air pollution in the world on Tuesday after smoke drifted south from the province of Quebec.

The thick pollution has cast an eerie, yellowish glow over the Big Apple’s famous skyscrapers, delayed flights and forced the postponement of sporting events.

The agency said it would likely need to take further steps to address traffic into New York City, Washington, Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The devastating fires have displaced more than 20,000 people and scorched about 3.8 million hectares of land in Canada, where prime minister Justin Trudeau described this wildfire season as the country’s worst ever.

More than 100 million people across the northeastern United States, and extending west to Chicago and south to Atlanta, were under pollution warnings after the smoke drifted hundreds of miles from Canada, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.