LONG ISLAND CITY, Queens (PIX11) — After the air quality was categorized as very unhealthy on Thursday, it improved greatly on Friday.

Still, concerns lingered, particularly for children. A variety of outdoor activities were moved indoors on Friday out of an abundance of caution, and even though the air cleared steadily throughout the day, many people remained reluctant to get outside.

 Discover more local reporting on our homepage 

New York City’s Parks Department canceled some outdoor children’s activities and moved some summer camp programs indoors. In cases where that wasn’t possible, the Parks Department said that it was monitoring air quality hourly. 

In contrast to that, however, some private summer athletic programs went ahead with outdoor activities. The DV-7 Soccer Camp on Randall’s Island had kids out on the pitch running around on Friday morning, even though the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index, or AQI, was in the unhealthy range. DV-7 did not respond to a request for comment. 

Neither did another private soccer program on Randall’s Island. The Barca Academy lets its children play on Friday. It gave the kids an hour break at midday, when the air quality was at its worst, according to parents on site, who declined requests to be interviewed. 

Throughout the day on Friday, the air quality gradually improved, and that change was greatly appreciated by many people PIX11 News encountered.

Tomoya Kakuguuchi was among the people in Hunter’s Point South Park enjoying the better air quality. 

“It’s great,” he said. “You see all the fog back here yesterday, but now it’s all cleared up.”

While it wasn’t actually all cleared, it was definitely palpably better. The EPA’s AQI was in double digits on Friday afternoon — the moderate range, in contrast to Thursday evening, when the index shot up well past 200. Any AQI reading above 200 is considered very unhealthy for all groups of people. 

 Make PIX11 your preferred news source on Google: Here’s how 

It’s why soccer camp for Kakuguuchi’s five-year-old son was canceled on Thursday. It was also canceled on Friday out of an abundance of caution, but when the father and son could see the skyline again after it had been obscured on Thursday, they got out of the house.

“He had to stay home yesterday too,” the dad said, “but now he’s outside, and look at this weather.”

He played soccer with his son in the park on Friday afternoon. 

A few yards away from them was the Joseph-Chinchilla Family. They were picnicking after being at the splash pad and basketball court on Friday afternoon. It was a big change from Thursday.

“We stayed indoors the whole day,” Said Liam Joseph, one of the two kids in the family. He also talked about Friday’s weather, and how it had improved, but still left some people reluctant to go outside. 

“Happy” is how he described his feelings. “But I thought there’d be more people at the basketball court,” he added. 

While the air quality improved on Friday, the latest AQI forecast called for conditions to deteriorate and become unhealthy once again on Saturday.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.