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<\/p>\nCode Purple air quality alert issued for all of Pennsylvania on Friday<\/p>\n
Wildfire smoke impacting Pennsylvania on Thursday and Friday<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut we have the air quality we have to clear out of here first, and it’s going to likely get worse before it gets better. We have to get through tomorrow, which is likely when the thickest of the smoke will be here. Saturday is *** severe weather alert day as we watch for rain and storms, specifically in the afternoon and early evening, and then things quiet down as we head into your Sunday. This is *** look at the current air quality and in right in the city of Pittsburgh we have both red, which is unhealthy, and then purple, which is dangerous, and that stretches north all. Way up to Erie and then back through portions of Ohio and into Michigan and our winds are still from the Northwest, so we are still bringing smoke in to Western Pennsylvania and that will continue. The smoke now pretty much sitting right along the Pennsylvania West Virginia line, the leading edge of it as we head through the night tonight, notice how we get more of this purple color spilling in here that is the thickest smoke here that arrives tonight into tomorrow morning. So again, it will get worse before it gets better. That stays with. Us through the day tomorrow. That’s why tomorrow is now *** code purple day for us. And then as we head late Friday into Saturday, we’ll start seeing the smoke drifting out of Western Pennsylvania. But notice even still on Saturday morning, still plenty of it around. It likely won’t be until late in the day on Saturday, especially with the rain that we see improvement for the rest of the day, there’s *** code purple for Forrest, Feno, Clarion, Butler, and Lawrence County. That means it’s dangerous for everyone to be outside. Everybody else is code red. Everybody goes under code purple in Western Pennsylvania, which means it’s very dangerous to be outside for any extended period. That’s why we stay on severe weather alert day for tomorrow, 86, 83 on Saturday. That rain will end Sunday morning, will dry out Monday. The one more rain chance on Tuesday, and then look what that does to our temperatures. Highs in the 70s, lows drop into the 50s by the time we head to the end of next week. So here’s Saturday morning, we may have to watch for *** shower. Or storm early, those will likely be few and far between. It’s really as we get into the late afternoon hours after about 5 o’clock, *** line of storms drift southward into western Pennsylvania. This will contain our severe threat crossing through Allegheny County, likely in the 8 o’clock hour and then exiting by the time we get to 10 and 11 o’clock. All of us have *** chance for severe weather, wind, and flooding are our primary concerns, although hail cannot be ruled out as storms roll through late on Saturday.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Code Purple air quality alert issued for all of Pennsylvania on Friday<\/p>\n
Wildfire smoke impacting Pennsylvania on Thursday and Friday<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tUpdated: 5:44 PM EDT Jul 16, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\tA Code Purple Air Quality Alert that includes all of Pennsylvania has been issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection for Friday.The statewide alert is for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) because of wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota that is impacting Pennsylvania.Code Purple indicates “very unhealthy” air quality on the Air Quality Index.EXPLAINER >> What is Code Purple air quality?Local conditions were more severe in the Code Maroon, or “hazardous” range, on Thursday afternoon, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.WTAE app: Download it to stay connected with breaking news & weatherSevere weather alerts: Sign up to get free alerts to your phone or email HOT AND HUMID IN PITTSBURGH REGIONOn top of the dangerous air quality, Thursday is another hot and humid day in Western Pennsylvania. Thursday is a Severe Weather Alert Day.The Pittsburgh’s Action Weather forecast calls for high temperatures near 90 degrees through Friday, and feels-like temperatures in the mid 90s when combining temperature with humidity.It appears that our air quality will not improve until late Friday or early Saturday. Because of that, Friday is now also a Severe Weather Alert Day.AIR QUALITY CONCERNSThe Associated Press reports that more than 100 wildfires are burning in Canada and winds are carrying the smoke southeast. Warnings about unhealthy air conditions extended from Minnesota through Toronto and into New York.High levels of fine particulate matter in the air from wildfire smoke may be unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children and people with heart or lung conditions. The particulates can cause shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness or fatigue and aggravate heart and lung diseases and other chronic health issues.Experts suggest wearing a N95 mask if you have to be outside and keeping your indoor air cleaner by closing windows and running an air purifier or air conditioner.Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n A Code Purple Air Quality Alert that includes all of Pennsylvania has been issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection for Friday.<\/p>\n The statewide alert is for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) because of wildfire smoke<\/a> from Canada and Minnesota that is impacting Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Code Purple indicates “very unhealthy” air quality on the Air Quality Index.<\/p>\n EXPLAINER >> What is Code Purple air quality?<\/a><\/p>\n Local conditions were more severe in the Code Maroon, or “hazardous” range<\/a>, on Thursday afternoon, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.<\/p>\n \t\t HOT AND HUMID IN PITTSBURGH REGION<\/p>\n On top of the dangerous air quality, Thursday is another hot and humid day<\/a> in Western Pennsylvania. Thursday is a Severe Weather Alert Day.<\/p>\n The Pittsburgh’s Action Weather forecast calls for high temperatures near 90 degrees through Friday, and feels-like temperatures in the mid 90s when combining temperature with humidity.<\/p>\n It appears that our air quality will not improve until late Friday or early Saturday. Because of that, Friday is now also a Severe Weather Alert Day.<\/p>\n AIR QUALITY CONCERNS<\/p>\n The Associated Press reports that more than 100 wildfires are burning in Canada and winds are carrying the smoke southeast. Warnings about unhealthy air conditions extended from Minnesota through Toronto and into New York.<\/p>\n High levels of fine particulate matter in the air from wildfire smoke may be unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children and people with heart or lung conditions. The particulates can cause shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness or fatigue and aggravate heart and lung diseases and other chronic health issues.<\/p>\n Experts suggest wearing a N95 mask if you have to be outside and keeping your indoor air cleaner by closing windows and running an air purifier or air conditioner.<\/p>\n Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Code Purple air quality alert issued for all of Pennsylvania on Friday Wildfire smoke impacting Pennsylvania on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30257,3765,104617,31659,104616,4327,21999,54679,7391,139,28,30,29,32974,13774,88713,18551],"class_list":["post-245251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-air-quality","tag-canada","tag-coughing","tag-feels-like-temperature","tag-fine-particulate-matter","tag-friday","tag-heart","tag-humid","tag-minnesota","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-severe-weather-alert-day","tag-thursday-afternoon","tag-wildfire-smoke","tag-wtae-app"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Code](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ce8684fa-e198-46aa-9a23-ea9f17f6ab92.png\"\/ "\\"Code")
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