With Canadian wildfires still burning and sending smoke into the Northeast, a government website has proved to be a valuable, easy-to-use resource for people looking for the latest information about air quality in their communities.
The website AirNow.gov allows users to search for air quality data by city, state or ZIP code.
On Friday afternoon, the website showed that air quality varied widely across Western Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh’s air quality index, or AQI, measured at 88 at 2 p.m., down from 108 earlier in the afternoon, according to the website, which is run by a partnership including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and other agencies.
New Kensington and Butler also had readings of 88 at 2 p.m., while Greensburg and Washington both had readings of 72, Beaver’s reading was 31 and Uniontown’s was 28, the website showed.
Air quality readings of between 100 and 150 are considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, including children, the elderly and people with asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Air quality is considered unhealthy for all people when readings are 150 or above. Pittsburgh’s AQI was 155 at mid-afternoon Wednesday.
Conditions could return to typical, healthier levels by Monday, according to Lee Hendricks, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Moon.
A low-pressure system lingering over Maine and eastern Canada will move into the North Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, changing regional wind patterns and stopping the flow of smoke into Pennsylvania, Hendricks said.
Instead of winds flowing counterclockwise and from north to south, they will start coming in from the west.
“That will bring an end to the smoke coming to the region,” he said.
Rain also will help. There is a 70% chance of rain showers Sunday night, Hendricks said.
He forecasted that “the weather system from the west and significant rainfall” will improve AQI numbers. Air quality could return to normal or, at worst, hover in the low-to-moderate risk range by Monday, he said.
