People in the Capital Region woke up smelling smoke Sunday morning as a result of more than a dozen wildfires down south.
NewsChannel 13 spoke to people in Colonie to see if they noticed any smoke.
“Just like burning ash. Like you’re like, you know if you’re going to like a fire, that’s kind of what smells like him,” one said.
It wasn’t just smoke as the sky was foggier today than usual.
“It was just a bit hazy. Like, the sun was kind of poking through so you could see the rays of the sun come through the haze,” another said.
Some of the smoke stretched for miles, coming from wildfires in New Jersey and others coming from wildfires in both Ulster and Orange counties.
People said that the air felt so thick today when they were walking that they couldn’t be outside.
“I could feel like the inside of my nose was burning, my sinuses were burning. I could feel it in my eyes. So, it’s definitely more sensitive to the air quality,” one person told NewsChannel 13.
The Cohoes Fire Department said it received more calls than usual Sunday from people who thought the wildfire smoke was a nearby fire.
Numerous fire departments across the region posted on Facebook to inform people that the smoke was from nothing nearby.
Michael Main from the National Weather Service in Albany said that recent dry conditions have increased the risk for fires. Main also said the winds swept the smoke from the south to our area.
“We had those south southwesterly winds today that actually blew some of the smoke from those fires up into parts of the Hudson Valley and the Capital District earlier today,” Main said.
Watch Zach Richter’s story above to see video of some of the wildfires.
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