...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. The smoke is expected to be rather
thick to start the day Thursday, but may start to decrease through
the day. A front on Friday will bring 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 - possibly through Friday.
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
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 exercise 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
