The air smelled as bad as it looked on Thursday in Western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
And the haze is far from over.<\/p>\n
Andrew Kienzle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Moon, said air quality is expected to worsen into Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The smoke is drifting from wildfires burning across northern Minnesota and western Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed the smoke around 11 this morning,\u201d said Michael Spanos, 40, who runs Gus & YiaYia\u2019s ice ball stand on Pittsburgh\u2019s North Side. \u201d We opened the shaved ice stand around noon, and you can just look and see the haze in the air. I haven\u2019t had any trouble breathing, but customers have mentioned they\u2019ve been having issues. They say they can feel it in their throats, like a burning sensation when they breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Customer Chuck Pollard, 66, remarked: \u201cAin\u2019t nothing we can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of now, the Pittsburgh region is around 100 on the Environmental Protection Agency scale, and it\u2019s expected to climb into the 200 to 300 range for the \u201clatter portions of this afternoon or evening,\u201d he said, with those conditions continuing overnight.<\/p>\n
The Air Quality Index\u2019s \u201cunhealthy\u201d category ranges from 151 to 200, meaning \u201cmembers of the general public may experience health effects,\u201d and the \u201cvery unhealthy\u201d category is 201 to 300.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It\u2019s) been kind of flowing southeast toward us over the last couple of days, but it\u2019s really dropping down on the Pittsburgh grid,\u201d Kienzle said. \u201cWe are expecting it to improve, but it will be at least 36 hours before we see that meaningful improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here is an image showing the projected concentration of smoke across the region through Friday. pic.twitter.com\/CaSuFO9ow6<\/a><\/p>\n