{"id":546952,"date":"2026-07-18T01:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/546952\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T01:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:42:10","slug":"trump-says-us-being-invaded-by-filthy-air-as-he-threatens-canada-with-tariffs-over-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/546952\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US being ‘invaded by filthy air’ as he threatens Canada with tariffs over wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s “Code Purple” for Washington, DC – what does that mean?published at 22:04 BST 17 July<\/p>\n

22:04 BST 17 July<\/p>\n

Rebecka Pieder
Reporting from Washington DC<\/p>\n

This is “probably one of the worst smoke pollution episodes on record for the area,” Washington DC meteorologist Jason Samenow tells the BBC.<\/p>\n

“We’re under a Code Purple air quality alert,” says Samenow, “which is, you know, signifying very unhealthy air.”<\/p>\n

Meteorologists seemingly follow the rainbow in rating air quality. Just one step beyond purple (“very unhealthy”) is the highest level, maroon, signifying “hazardous”. On the other end, green is good. <\/p>\n

“The more pollutants in the air, the worse the air quality,” Samenow, whose weather reports are followed closely by many throughout the region, says. “It’s just based on the concentration of pollution” in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The level of smoke and pollution shrouding the US capital area is due to the proximity and intensity of wildfires burning in Ontario.<\/p>\n

And Code Purple “means that pretty much anybody who goes outside is going to feel it and should take precautions”, he says.<\/p>\n

For this reporter, stepping outdoors in Washington for even a few moments today brought on itchy eyes and a dry throat, and made me feel lightheaded.<\/p>\n

But relief is on its way for Washington DC. <\/p>\n

“There’s a big cold front coming in tomorrow, and that’s going to help push a lot of the smoke away,” Samenow says. “I think we’re going to see improving air quality by late Saturday and into Sunday.”<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n

Jason Samenow is a meteorologist in the Washington DC area<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s “Code Purple” for Washington, DC – what does that mean?published at 22:04 BST 17 July 22:04 BST…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-546952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}