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- Currently in Portland — June 15, 2023: Another partly sunny day, a little warmer than Wednesday.
Currently in Portland — June 15, 2023: Another partly sunny day, a little warmer than Wednesday.
Plus, new data show Black and Brown New Yorkers suffered the most from wildfire smoke
Eric Holthaus
June 14, 2023
The weather, currently.
Another partly sunny day, a little warmer than Wednesday.
Wednesday was almost chilly! A good reminder that layers are required pretty much year-round here in Portland. Thursday is going to warm up a little bit (and Friday even moreso) before returning to a cool and rainy few days, so let's enjoy this spring weather while we can. If you're still doing any spring planting, the next few days could be a good time for it. The weather will be just right for some light exertion outside, and then the rain will come in to keep fresh plantings moist while they get established.
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.
Welcome to the new-and-improved Currently!
If you’re a big fan of Currently, please share us with a friend! Our brand-new referral program is a way to give our biggest fans direct ownership of our company. We are the first weather service in the world to do this, and we’ll have much more in the coming days on our hopes and dreams for member-ownership, as well as Currently as a whole.
Thank you for taking this exciting journey with us!
—Eric Holthaus