A change in wind direction helps dissipate effects of smoke in Butler County
While air quality remained at Code Red in Butler Saturday, July 18, the wet weather and change in wind pushed some particles out of region, lowering Sunday to Code Orange status.
Colton Milcarek, a meteorologist with National Weather Service Pittsburgh, said Saturday the rain that showered the region from Friday night and Saturday morning helped clean the air, which was bad quality because of fires in Minnesota and Ontario, Canada.
The air quality was not expected to return to normal levels Saturday, but predicted thunderstorms in the evening may further clear the air. During the Code Red air quality, fine inhalable particles of matter with diameters of 2.5 micrometers and smaller, a size unhealthy to all groups may be in the air.
The change in wind direction also aided in clearing the air, Milcarek said.
“For today, we switched over down to the South, from portions of the Mid-Atlantic,” Milcarek said of which direction the wind was coming from. “Right now it doesn't look like anything we saw Thursday or Friday. Sunday into Monday, it will not be as bad.”
On Sunday, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service reported the air quality was at Code Orange, or unhealthy for sensitive groups. He said it was likely to remain at Code Orange on Monday before possibly dropping further later in the week.
