New York City has weathered its fair share of threats. From flooding to blackouts, New Yorkers are resilient and know how to handle obstacles. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged much of the city and resulted in billions of dollars worth of damage. Around 300 homes were destroyed, many New York City residents went without power for an extended period of time, and the city streets were littered with debris. When Sandy hit New York, I was in kindergarten – and mostly sheltered from the effects of the natural disaster. But, thinking back, it is remarkable how quickly the city was able to recover.
Within a few weeks, there was very little that indicated it ever happened.
Although most natural disasters are a walk in the park for the city to deal with, wildfires are a new threat. The weather in the northeastern United States is not normally conducive to wildfires. The area frequently experiences rain and the temperature rarely exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the past few decades, New York City’s only exposure to wildfires has been the aftermath of wildfires elsewhere.
Many New York City residents will likely remember the few days in June of 2023 when the city was cloaked in heavy smoke that had travelled to New York from Canadian wildfires. The sky turned orange and the air quality became so terrible that experts advised against going outside; students were even given a day off of school. As usual, the city dealt with this period well and most residents just remember it as interesting.
In the fall of 2024, the city again dealt with smoke and poor air quality due to wildfires. The difference at that time was that the smoke came from fires in the forests of New Jersey and the Hudson Valley; less than 50 miles away from the city, rather than the hundreds of miles that it traveled in 2023.
The last time New York’s wildfires burned in excess of 10,000 acres was in 1989. For the most part, the acreage burned stayed below 5,000 acres per year. There are normally around 100 individual wildfires per year in New York – each averaging approximately 10 acres per fire. In contrast, a single recent wildfire near New York City burned around 5,000 acres on its own. The smoke from New Jersey and the Hudson valley caught many New Yorkers off guard, but this wasn’t even the end of it. As it turned out, wildfires began to occur in the limits of the five boroughs. In fact, some small wildfires occurred less than a mile and a half from Bronx Science.
At Van Cortlandt park, the wildfires gradually made themselves known. They began with a seemingly out of the blue, irregular fire that I thought was unlikely to repeat itself. From that point onwards, there was a brief respite from wildfires that made the threat seem less imminent. A few days later, fires began to sprout up haphazardly all across the park.
I am a member of Bronx Science’s Boys’ Varsity Cross-Country team. On a routine run through Van Cortlandt Park in early November 2024, the wildfires in the area suddenly became very real. Generally speaking, if a threat is not perceived by one’s senses first-hand, it is difficult to grasp the gravity of the situation and even perceive that said threat is an issue at all. For me, despite the knowledge that the wildfires were in the tristate area, I was unable to grasp that they would affect me in the slightest.
Running through Van Cortlandt, there was a heavy smell of smoke hanging in the air. The smell was overwhelming and distracting. Not only that, the smoke made breathing somewhat difficult. During this run, we were only experiencing the aftermath of the fire. The run occurred a couple of days after the actual fire, and yet its effects still had a significant impact on me and my teammates as we trained.
The scope of the wildfire threat became very clear during my travels. At a small scale, it was eye-opening how many fires there were in Van Cortlandt Park. On a six mile run starting at Bronx Science and looping through the park, it feels that we run through and encounter approximately ten sites of recently extinguished wildfires. New York as a whole felt like another planet during the fires. On a brief excursion to go hiking in the area, I encountered thick plumes of smoke all across the mountains and the Palisades region of the state.
In these areas at night, the sky was orange and it was difficult to see anything. Fog lights were necessary to drive safely, and it was difficult to breathe even from inside a car that provided a barrier from the outside air. Looking out at the smoky, orange skies and all the traffic, it felt like a world-altering event – straight out of a movie.
New York City has always been somewhat protected from wildfire conditions by environmental conditions that make fires unlikely. Many New Yorkers may remember that in the fall of 2023, every single weekend was rained out and it was never sunny. As a high school athlete, those weekends were horrible. It left me and other athletes all across the city standing outside in heavy rain for hours on end. In the fall of 2024, there was absolutely no rain for all of the fall season’s weekends. Even the weekdays were free of rain. Many were thankful for the seemingly wonderful weather, but in reality it was not good for the earth.
The lack of rain meant plants and animals suffered. During this heavy drought season, the leaves of most plants were brown and bone dry. These conditions made the area more susceptible to wildfires and drought prone.
These drought conditions include slightly lower water levels in bodies of water like rivers and lakes and drier leaves of New York’s flora. According to the New York Times, New York city’s reservoirs were down to about 60 percent of their capacity in early November 2024, when they’re normally approximately 79 percent full at that time of year.
In early January 2025, New York City’s drought warning was lifted by Mayor Eric Adams. The wildfires also seemed to subside. With winter, snow has fallen across the state, helping to alleviate the wildfire conditions. With the recent fires in Los Angeles, I can’t help but realize how fortunate New York was to have withstood the fires in the area with very little damage. It seems that wildfires are increasing across the world, making me wonder what may be next for New York City.
There are normally around 100 individual wildfires per year in New York – each averaging approximately 10 acres per fire. In contrast, a single recent wildfire near New York City burned around 5,000 acres on its own.