Air Quality Worsening In Eastern PA As Wildfire Smoke Returns

PENNSYLVANIA — Air quality is beginning to worsen in eastern Pennsylvania, as plumes of smoke from wildfires in Canada are raising levels of fine particulate matter in the air to unhealthy levels.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a code red air quality alert for the entire state through midnight Wednesday night, due to air pollution concentrations that may be unhealthy for some of the general public.

Members of sensitive groups, such as people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teenagers, and outdoor workers, may experience more serious health effects, the National Weather Service said. Air quality conditions may rapidly deteriorate at times Wednesday, officials said.

"Pennsylvania residents should limit their outdoors activities, especially older people, children, those who are active outdoors, and those with lung or respiratory conditions such as asthma, emphysema or bronchitis," the DEP said in a statement.

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Risky AQI, which may pose a hazard for people who are sensitive to air pollution, begins at values above 50, according to the federal website AirNow.gov.

The site reports “unhealthy” air quality in Pittsburgh and surrounding counties as of 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, a reprieve for now from the "very unhealthy" levels above 200 that western Pennsylvania residents were breathing in earlier in the day.

“Unhealthy” air is being reported in Harrisbug as well as Reading, Chester, and Montgomery counties, with AQI levels above 150 in the Lancaster area.

Concentrations will rise during the afternoon, with the highest hourly concentrations expected to be late in the day as the smoke continues to move south and eastward.

Average concentrations for the day will be at levels in the higher end of Code Orange to low end of Code Red.

"Smoky air dispersed from Canadian wildfires that has brought very unhealthy air west of the Appalachians is bringing air quality into the 'code orange & code red' categories, especially west & southwest of NJ," said the National Weather Service early Wednesday afternoon.

Similar alerts were issued in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, following in the footsteps of several midwestern states earlier this week, according to AirNow.gov.

However, NWS experts say they do not expect conditions in Pennsylvania to be as severe as earlier this month, when the air quality in parts of Pennsylvania rose to dangerously unhealthy levels as the skies turned yellow due to the wildfire haze. The unhealthy air quality closed schools and government offices for at least a day on June 7.

"All of our state air quality agencies are forecasting 'code orange' for Thursday, and it looks like similar conditions may linger Friday," said the NWS office in Mount Holly. "This is NOT as severe as 3 weeks ago (we were in the 'code purple' or higher)."

Wildfires have burned over 7.9 million hectares since the start of the year, roughly 289,314 of which were in Ontario.

Air quality conditions are expected to begin improving late Friday into Saturday as more unsettled weather looks to return for the weekend, officials said.