The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has issued a code orange air quality alert for Wednesday, July 15.
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.
Clear skies will gradually mix with clouds this afternoon, and more notably increasing wildfire smoke filtering in from Canada. This will lead to haze and even a bit of a smoky smell to the air, with some pockets of smoke mixing in at times this afternoon before a more prominent area of smoke builds in roughly 5-8 PM and into the night. Air quality index (AQI) levels will exceed 150+, which is unhealthy for all groups.
Overnight as winds settle, it is possible some denser pockets of smoke develop which could bump AQI levels to near or around 200 which is very unhealthy for all groups. Smoke lingers into tomorrow with the threat for another round of dense smoke to bring unhealthy or even very unhealthy 200-300 AQI levels in the afternoon.
For more information on air quality data, visit https://www.airnow.gov
