New Yorkers Turn to UAlbany Experts as Wildfire Smoke Blankets the State

By Mike Nolan

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 22, 2026) — Wildfire smoke has become a familiar visitor to New York's summer skies, returning once again and triggering statewide air quality health advisories.

Smoke drifting from wildfires burning in Canada pushed air quality into unhealthy territory across much of the state last week. Combined with a stretch of high heat, the smoke left skies hazy from Buffalo to New York City and prompted officials to urge sensitive groups to limit time outdoors.

As New Yorkers needed answers, they once again turned to researchers at the University at Albany for insight into where the smoke was coming from and how bad it would get.

Lights, Camera, Mobile Lab

On Thursday, meteorologist Tim Drawbridge of News Channel 13 – WNYT joined faculty from UAlbany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) for a series of live hits to show how their mobile air quality lab tracks wildfire smoke pollution.

ASRC's mobile air quality research lab operates out of a customized 2007 Dodge Sprinter van outfitted with scientific instruments that monitor air quality from the back of the vehicle as it moves through neighborhoods.

In real time, the mobile lab research team can measure tiny airborne particles and pollutants, including wildfire smoke, helping identify local pollution hotspots and better understand how air quality varies from block to block.

“It’s becoming the new norm, with more bad air quality coming out of Canada and west of us,” Atmospheric Sciences Research Center Director Chris Thorncroft told Drawbridge. “These smoke events are not only a contributor to climate change, but something that can impact public health. It is important that we continue to measure the pollutants through instruments like our mobile air quality lab.”

The research team is currently pursuing funding for a second mobile lab that would specifically detect PFAS in the air — an emerging area of public health concern.

Mesonet Air Quality Monitoring

As conditions worsened, scientists with the New York State Mesonet, headquartered at UAlbany, were also monitoring the smoke's movement using the network's 17 profiler sites.

The specialized network is equipped with a Doppler LiDAR and a microwave radiometer that scan the atmosphere and report back in real time. This data is used to better understand the atmospheric boundary layer, the lowest part of the troposphere that is directly influenced by Earth's surface. 

Bhupal Shrestha, a research scientist with the NYS Mesonet, explained to News Channel 10 – WTEN how the instruments distinguish smoke from other particles in the air and follow its path. 

"The Doppler LiDAR helps to track the concentration of the aerosols in the atmosphere," Shrestha told WTEN. "So, depending on the intensity of the return signal from the Doppler LiDAR, we are able to tell if the aerosol in the atmosphere is smoke or something else. And because we have 17 of them across the state, we are able to track the path of the smoke that's moving across the state."

Along with tracking environmental conditions, the NYS Mesonet also provides camera images from each of its standard sites. The camera network captured the smoke as it spread across the state last week.

Shrestha was additionally featured as a wildfire smoke expert in articles published by the Times Union and Syracuse Post-Standard.

Tracking Smoke High in the Adirondacks

Further north, ASRC's Whiteface Mountain Field Station continued its long-running watch on the atmosphere from its summit observatory, which has collected cloud water samples for chemical monitoring for more than 50 years.

The station's own Doppler Wind LiDAR captured the smoke plume moving through the region, showing the smoke sitting aloft above the field station.

In a social media post sharing the observations, the Whiteface research team noted that while the smoke's source can be hundreds or even thousands of miles away, atmospheric conditions can carry those particles across far distances, affecting air quality far from where the fires are burning.

Elsewhere on campus, the State Weather Risk Communication Center — a partnership between UAlbany and the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services — was relaying the Department of Conservation's Air Quality Forecast to state and local emergency managers, helping sharpen messaging to keep New Yorkers safe.