Pittsburgh Weather: Air quality remains low
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The haze is expected to be back today with low air quality in place across our region. So air quality is one of those things where you can say meteorologists are 'passive' and not 'active'. In science, an 'active' system is one where there is direct contact with whatever you are sensing or testing.
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This would be like a thermometer reading a temperature. It is actively in place.
A passive system is something that can read a measurement but is not present. We consider data from satellites to be passive. So why are 'mets' passive' when it comes to air quality? We are not actively collecting the data and are really just part of a line that is used to get the information out.
So why am I mentioning this?
Air quality readings are taken by various local communities. The larger the community the more likely you are to be getting daily readings. Larger communities also will have more active monitors. Places where the air quality is known to be poor are covered well and we get lots of information from them.
In places where the air quality is usually good, we may get little data over even a month but we can use computers to come up with an estimated value. You then need local officials, usually your county emergency manager to send the data up to the state who then relays any warnings to the National Weather Service offices to issue a warning that comes to phones and to my weather computers too.
It's a long process.
The good news is that with how wide this issue is everyone is on the same page of getting information up the chain as fast as possible. It is certainly very important now that we have hit a Code Red air quality alert meaning the air was deemed unhealthy for everyone. While today is forecast to remain in Code Orange I can't rule out us rising to Code Red.
Our air quality is expected to remain poor through at least Saturday.
Let's talk about today's weather with today being the coolest day of the week.
Highs are just expected to get back to around 70 degrees. I have Pittsburgh seeing a high of 69°. That may be very optimistic with the haze expected to be back today. There's also a chance for rain this afternoon thanks to an upper low located off the east coast along with just enough instability.
A downpour or two with cold rain will be possible.
Those rains are much-needed. The NOAA's Drought Monitor has officially said that all of Allegheny County is in a moderate drought.
Not everyone will see rain. The rain chance is slightly higher on Friday. Temperatures will also tick up just a bit on Friday with highs in the low 70s.
Saturday and Sunday are both expected to be dry with highs hovering around 80 both days. Poor air quality is expected to continue through at least Saturday.
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