The cloudy, milky sky this week across upstate New York and much of the northeastern United States could become increasingly more frequent as wildfires become more powerful. 

"We will likely see this sort of thing increasingly often," said Nick Bassill, the director of research and development at the UAlbany Center for Excellence. "Right now is one of the worst droughts across the western United States." 

Bassill said the massive wildfires, made worse by man-made climate change, can affect what's happening on the other side of the continent. 

"Sometimes when you have really big fires out west, those are very strong fires driven by really intense heat and that helps to inject smoke high into the atmosphere," he said. 

Air quality was made worse as a result. It's a sign of how climate change will affect upstate New York, even if the immediate affects are being seen in western Canada, like the wildfires this week. 

"I like to think I'm a normal, healthy male," Bassill said. "And I went for a run a day before we had the smoke and I had to stop my run because it was so bad."

And air quality was so bad, Bassill says the readings were the worst in years. 

"We were reaching thresholds in the New York area that we haven't seen in a decade or more," he said. 

In New York, officials have taken steps to mitigate the worst of climate change, moving toward renewable energies and shifting the state in the coming years away from fossil fuels. But a broader change may be needed. 

"Unless we kind of change our behavior," Bassill said, "we don't expect big differences."