Canadian wildfires are affecting air quality in North Carolina

From the mountains to the coast, a light haze stretches across the sky from smoke from the Canadian wildfires, and smoke from these fires will likely impact North Carolina for the remainder of this week.

We have been affected by this wildfire smoke for several days and may experience greater impact on Wednesday due to unhealthy air quality conditions throughout North Carolina on Wednesday.

The North Carolina Division of Air Quality’s Wednesday forecast was increased Tuesday afternoon. About half of the state will see code Red Air Quality on Wednesday and the other half of the state will see code Orange Air Quality.

Code Orange means, “Members of sensitive groups may have health effects.” The general public is likely to be less affected.” The “sensitive group” is described by NCDEQ as follows: “People with lung disease, children, older adults and people who are in the Moving outdoors are considered sensitive and are therefore at higher risk.”

Code Red means: “Health effects may be experienced by some members of the public. Members of sensitive groups may have more serious health effects.”

Conclusion: Because of wildfire smoke, we should all limit our time outdoors whenever possible.

Ground-level ozone makes it difficult for oxygen to get into the lungs for breathing. The higher the level of ground-level ozone, the higher the air quality warning, and that could be in store for us on Wednesday.

A backdoor cold front will advance south into the state on Wednesday and could drive even more smoke into our area. Poor air quality is expected through at least Friday, according to the North Carolina Department of Air Quality forecast.

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