National Weather Service weighs in on Alabama air quality amid hazy nationwide conditions

Wildfires have been ravaging the Canadian border sending a shroud of haze across the East Coast. While Alabama isn’t as affected as NYC and DC, we checked in with National Weather Service (NWS) of Birmingham meteorologist Gary Goggins for the latest developments and how it’ll impact us in our neck of the woods.

Hazy days

Your social media feed has probably been flooded with photos of the eerie, orange haze that many Americans have experienced recently.

According to NWS meteorologist Gary Goggins, a large ridge of high pressure is sending smoke from the prolific wildfires in Eastern Canada directly into much of the northeastern US.

“I’ve heard about all the really bad air quality conditions in New York City and areas in the Northeast. A lot of that is going down as far south as the Carolinas in terms of air quality alerts. Here in the southeast in Central Alabama, we’re already seeing some smoke. Not nearly as thick and dense in terms of the particles in the air, but we’ve seen that haze the last couple of mornings as the sun comes up.”

Gary Goggins, meteorologist, National Weather Service in Birmingham

Concerns about Alabama air quality have been raised with the spread of smoke, but it looks like we don’t have a whole lot to worry about right now.

“Right now, the air quality forecast that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management puts out currently has us in moderate air quality, so we’re not hitting any unhealthy levels just yet. We’re getting on the outer fringe of that smoke that’s coming down into the eastern portion of the country.”

Gary Goggins, meteorologist, National Weather Service in Birmingham

What’s ahead

Air quality isn’t at alarming levels in Alabama at the moment and it looks like things will be clearing up for the most part by early next week.

Goggins let us know that we’ll see the northerly flow continue across the eastern portion of the country for the next couple of days, then it’ll dissipate throughout the weekend.

“By Saturday and Sunday, the winds that are transporting the smoke from Canada will start to veer more towards the west and southwest. We should start to see improvement in terms of hazy conditions, especially on sunday as we have another weather system expected to move to the center of the country.”

Gary Goggins, meteorologist, National Weather Service in Birmingham

While Goggins wishes for some rain chances to come back to the forecast next week, he mentions we might have to look at some strong storms ahead.

“The pattern does look to be changing as we go into Sunday and early next week, so we shouldn’t see much effects of the smoke after that.”

Gary Goggins, meteorologist, National Weather Service in Birmingham

Stay on the lookout as weather constantly changes. For the latest watches, warnings and advisories, follow NWS Birmingham on Facebook and check out their website.

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