If you notice some smoke outside on Friday, it is likely from wildfires, though it shouldn’t be as heavy as it was at times last summer.
“There could be some haze in the sky tomorrow from the wildfires but it doesn’t look significant,” said Thomas Kines, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.
Web cameras in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, where the smoke/haze is now, are not showing heavy smoke conditions, he said.
“It really isn’t that much, and I’m not sure the average person notices, so this shouldn’t be a big deal for Virginia,” Kines said. “Any smoke/ haze is high in the atmosphere so it will not have an effect on people’s health.”
The current air quality in Waynesboro, as one example, is listed as good.
One thing people are likely to notice, Kines said, is the lower humidity starting Friday.
“While this isn’t a refreshing air mass, it is one that will give us a break from the humidity of the past several days,” Kines said.
A number of states on the East Coast had to deal with unhealthy air quality last summer due to wildfires burning in Canada. The heavy smoke was called “apocalyptic” by some social media users, and the smoke delayed and cancelled flights in New York and New Jersey.
The air quality index is searchable by zip code and may be found at airnow.gov
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Crystal Graham
