The smoke that clouded Pittsburgh’s skies last week may return as wildfire smoke in Oregon and Washington mixes with smoke from the ongoing wildfires in Canada, weather experts say.
The matter of when the smoke from western wildfires will come back remains unknown.
Colton Milcarek, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Moon Township, said it was too soon to tell when smoke would be visible.
“We don’t have any models that go out far enough to predict when the smoke will be here,” Milcarek said.
He added that smoke forecasts are largely dependent on the direction that a fire is moving, winds, and intensity of the blaze.
National Weather Service’s current models can only project smoke out to two days, Milcarek said.
Last week, smoke from the western and Canadian wildfires pushed Pittsburgh’s Air Qulaity Index into an unhealthy range, promptng several public parks, pools, and outdoor programs to close or cancel events.
Meteorologists say that if smoke rolls in next week, it won’t be as bad as last week.
“Generally when we start to get smoke from western fires and not Canada it tends to stay up above the layers of the air that we’re breathing,” said David Shallenberger, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Both projected that if smoke does arrive, it will be visible in the upper atmosphere.