After a Code Red Air Quality Action Day Thursday, it’s supposed to be a Code Orange Air Quality Day Friday.
The Code Red is unhealthy for everyone with particulate matter in the air high as smoke is blowing in from the wildfires in Canada again.
The Code Orange forecast for Friday means the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups. The conditions are expected to improve over the weekend dropping the Air Quality Index to yellow which signifies moderate conditions.
This is the second time this month Delaware has dealt with multiple days of Code Red and Code Orange conditions, and while this week wasn’t bad as in early June is this something we’ll have to deal with all summer?
"It's definitely something that we're going to keep an eye on at Air Quality because as long as the fires are still burning there's the potential for the transport to happen again. I was seeing last week that the fires were affecting air quality in Europe, and the transport really can move this material quite far," said Angela Marconi, Division of Air Quality director at DNREC.
She notes residents can sign up for an email service to be made aware of when the air quality is unhealthy.
Marconi says those who might have health issues that get worse during those Air Quality action days should also be prepared.
"We always recommend that people make sure they have their medicine handy if they are in a sensitive group and have breathing issues to make sure that they're filling their prescriptions and keeping that on hand. The opt-in service - the emails that we provide - we only send out an email when there is an alert."
You can sign up at de.gov/AQI, and Marconi says you will only get emails when there is an alert saying if there’s no news it’s good news.
