Wildfire smoke delays flights across the Northeast as FAA reports dangerous visibility

Wildfire smoke in the Northeast became so bad flights into area airports were affected Wednesday, with planes being grounded for periods of the day at New York LaGuardia and New Jersey's Newarks airports.

"The FAA has slowed traffic to and from New York City area airports due to reduced visibility from wildfire smoke," the Federal Aviation Authority tweeted.

"The agency will continue to adjust the volume of traffic to account for the rapidly changing conditions."

A "code red" air quality alert was issued early in the day Wednesday as the jet stream carried smoke down from Canada into the northeastern United States. The thick smoke begins at the western New Hampshire border, and runs south into Massachusetts, all over New York, New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, most of Maryland, Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan.

The problem began Tuesday as smoke enveloped the New York Yankee's game and continued to get worse overnight and throughout the day.

The EarthCam looking to lower Manhattan's World Trade Center at 1 p.m. EST showed the buildings barely visible through the dense brown haze.

Thus far, flights in Philadelphia, Newark and LaGuardia are all significantly delayed due to the haze.