...POOR AIR QUALITY IN THE MID-ATLANTIC THROUGH FRIDAY DUE TO
CANADIAN WILDFIRES...
Due to Canadian wildfires, smoke is prevalent in the mid-
Atlantic region, including the greater Baltimore and Washington
metropolitan areas. Under northerly winds, smoke will continue to
be pushed south over our area. Thicker smoke may overspread parts
of the area late tonight into Thursday morning, resulting in poor
air quality and visibility potentially less than 2 miles. Some
improvement is likely through the day, but the smoke likely will
continue to affect the area at times until a front on Friday
potentially brings some reprieve to fine particle concentrations.
Depending on your location, Air Quality will vary, with much of
the area either Code Orange or Code Red through at least Thursday.
A Code Orange Air Quality Alert means that air pollution
concentrations within the region are unhealthy for sensitive
groups. Sensitive groups include children, people with heart or
lung disease, older adults, children, pregnant people, and those
that spend a lot of time outdoors.
Some areas may see Code Red, which means unhealthy for the
general population. If you are under a Code Red Air Quality
Alert, everyone should keep outdoor activities light and short.
For those people in sensitive groups, consider moving all
activities indoors.
The effects of air pollution on people can be minimized by
avoiding strenuous outdoor activity or exercising indoors. Go
indoors if you have symptoms.
Be aware of your air quality, which you can track here:
https://fire.airnow.gov More info is here:
https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/
Air quality monitoring and forecasts are done by the states. The
National Weather Service helps to disseminate these air quality
forecasts.
For more information on air quality, including ground-level ozone
and fine particles, visit your states website:
Maryland:
mde.maryland.gov/programs/air/AirQualityMonitoring/Pages/index.aspx
Washington DC:
https://www.mwcog.org/environment/air/forecast/
Virginia:
deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/air/monitoring-assessments/
air-quality-forecast
West Virginia:
https://dep.wv.gov/daq/air-monitoring/Pages/AirQualityIndex.aspx
