Active Weather Alerts
Special Weather Statement
Issued: 3:13 PM Jun. 8, 2023 – National Weather Service
...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 will continue to overspread portions of the area, resulting in poor air quality and visibility potentially less than 1 mile. 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 the day today. There is a Code Purple Air Quality Alert for the District of Columbia and portions of northern Virginia. 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, 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. A Code Purple Air Quality Alert means that everyone may experience more serious heath effects and should avoid outdoor activities, especially individuals with heart and breathing ailments, children, and older adults. 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: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/air/monitoring- assessments/air-quality-forecast West Virginia: https://dep.wv.gov/daq/air-monitoring/Pages/AirQualityIndex.aspx
Air Quality Alert
Issued: 3:08 PM Jun. 8, 2023 – National Weather Service
...AIR QUALITY ALERT IS IN EFFECT FOR THURSDAY JUNE 8 2023... The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued a Code ORANGE Air Quality Alert Thursday for Winchester and the eastern West Virginia Panhandle. A Code Orange Air Quality Alert means that air pollution concentrations within the region may become unhealthy for sensitive groups. Sensitive groups include children, people suffering from asthma, heart disease or other lung diseases and the elderly. The effects of air pollution can be minimized by avoiding strenuous activity or exercise outdoors. For more information on ground-level ozone and fine particles visit the web site Virginia DEQ air quality web site at www.deq.virginia.gov.
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