Hazy skies are in the forecast for Pennsylvania, as smoke from wildfires in Canada makes its way across the eastern United States.
“It’s caused a milkier sky here in central Pennsylvania, and that’s probably going to linger for perhaps at least another day, maybe even into later this week," Rob Lydick, executive producer of Weather World at Penn State, said Tuesday.
Lydick said it’s the third super-active wildfire season in a row in Canada. In 2023, more than 40 million acres burned.
“Right now, it’s not as bad as what we saw a couple of years ago when you had those apocalyptic images of the orange skies in New York City," Lydick said. "But it certainly is very active with how dry it’s been in Canada. And June is when they typically get their summer rainfall, so we’re kind of waiting to see if that will quash some of these fires or if that’s going to continue into the fall.”
For now, Lydick is not expecting air quality to be impacted at the same levels it was a few years ago. But, it is something people who are sensitive to air pollution will have to keep an eye on.
The wildfires have led to the evacuations of thousands of people in Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week, and in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
