Not good in western and central PA today

we are also in the red zone. it's bad enough here that the smoke is interfering with cell phone signals. every call i have tried to make either won't go through or gets dropped after a couple of seconds.

Our air quality north of Chicago was in the Purple zone yesterday, today it is firmly in the Red zone. 6 miles west of me, though, it’s Purple zone. skies are basically no color at all, just hazy. On the ground, it’s like there’s a light fog. And the air has been acrid. Outdoor activities are cancelled, the beaches are closed.

Yesterday it was dark all day, today the sunlight is shining through, I even was able to see a small white cloud, so the Red was in fact better than yesterday’s Purple.

I just checked, and what was Purple a couple of hours ago has skootched just barekly over the line into Red. Small blessings!

We are purple today (167), too, in West Michigan - and were all day yesterday (268), and probably tomorrow, too. The smoke is bad.

Air quality is 43 here in Los Angeles, but it is 35 in Cathedral City, where we are going this evening. However, it will be extremely hot there but only 15% humidity.

I was unaware that smoke was still a problem further east.

bpath and I are in the same town. We had to have our front door open for an hour yesterday evening as two men removed our area rugs and padding for cleaning, and I had to use my rescue inhaler at bedtime. This is the inhaler I regularly buy and *never* need. This morning I saw a little blue sky, but that soon ended. ICKY, NASTY, sickening air! We might get rain tonight and into tomorrow. We are in drought.

Cousin in IL shared a screenshot and their air quality number was over 200 today and yesterday ☹️

Chisue, I've feeling tight in my chest for an hour or so, not sure if it's in my head or not. I haven't had to use my inhaler for quite a while. I found it on my other desk in my room and it's 2 years out of date. Guess it's time to get a renewal.

Well, the location to the west of me inched back up to 208: Purple. Chisue and I are at 170. DH just said he’s going for a bike ride tomorrow. I better keep my phone handy, he will be calling me from the bike path.

We went from code green to code red in one day. Tomorrow will also be code red.

So sorry to hear it's still a problem. Hope you all (and especially where the fires are) get a good soaking rain to clear things out.

I thought it was bad when I was hiking the trail, and when I turned on the TV, I saw we were in code red and will be tomorrow as well.

Fortunately for us, our air quality this side of the Atlantic should not be affected but we have been to to expect some spectacular sunsets.

makes one wonder ... if they weren't reporting it, would most people even realize it? or is it a back of mind thing that people can point to if they feel punk? yeah, it's 186 here and as an asthmatic i can feel it, but it is allergy season too and haven't heard a peep about the sky high pollen counts ...

Here in central Wisconsin, air quality index was 168 yesterday and currently 199. Has been day after day of gray haze from the wildfires. Our summers here are normally delightful. Not so this year.

We are 194, very unhealthy in Philadelphia. It does make your throat scratchy.

It's 186 here, in the Red zone, inching toward Purple. Smells like burning garbage outside. You'd think wildfire smoke would smell like burning wood, but I guess it picks up some contaminants on the way here. I was going to make lunch to have with my daughter-in-law, but we're both staying in our houses today. Also, the smell doesn't do much for the appetite nor desire to get creative in the kitchen.

169 here today, the other one I follow a few miles west is 184. That seems like a big difference, but maybe it has to do with the Great Lake air?

The sky today is the that completely-devoid-of-color grey that has been so popular in decorating the last several years.

Bragu, Call me obtuse, but I'm not sure what you're getting at. I would totally realize we have smoke if it weren't covered by the news. The smoke where I am actually smells like campfire smoke. Our normally smoke/smog free skyline is shrouded in haze. I'm also dealing with pollen allergies, so they didn't go away because the smoke has been given more air time. Allergies are pretty common, whereas so many folks dealing with smoke from fires thousands of miles away is kind of unusual.

In the orange today in my little town, spent most of today in Louisville, where it's red. I've been coughing so not sure if it's the air or allergies. It's raining in both places, though, so hope it helps.

I never smoked even one cigarette in my life but feel like I smoked a whole pack on my 3.5 hike today. I sneezed a dozen times and my eyes were watering. I don't have allergies so the sneezing was weird. I'm in one of the groups to stay home but this is going to go on the whole summer. Another reason to chalk up why I hate summer.

we had a huge storm today, air quality went from terrible to good quickly. i doubt, with the fires predicted to burn all summer, that it'll stay that way.

had a lot of damage to trees but thankfully we didn't lose electricity like many of the surrounding areas did. many places are still out.

pippin had fun with all of the new sticks in the yard!

Bragu, no asthma or allergies in my household, yet we definitely notice the acrid smell in the air, the colorless color of the sky, the foggy look to the environment, and the feel of the outdoors. At least something like airnow.gov explains why,

The smoke has been visible for 3 days now - just looking out my window into the back yard looks like a foggy morning - we were in the purple zone this morning - yesterday evening a pocket about 50 miles northeast of us that was in the zone above purple!

Yesterday was also overcast all day, fortunately, so we didn't have the burning plastic smell in the air that we had 3 weeks ago. I read that comes from bright sun interacting with chemicals in the smoke.

The interactive maps looks like things will be clearing quite a bit overnight. Good, I need to get out and pick blueberries, pulls weeds and mow!

In the yellow now, after the rain today! I can't imagine having to breathe that air all Summer long. I still have work to do in the yard, can't stay inside all the time.

We are down to the double-digits today at 93! On the other hand, it’s about 88° and 88% humidity, Not really, it’s 51% humidity, but boy does it feel ”close” outside.

It's crystal clear and 95F here in KC. Storms are allegedly supposed to move in tonight but I won't be here to see it as we are heading to the lake soon. It is supposed to cool off into the mid 80s for a couple days both here and at the lake.

We were in the orange category and then quickly moved up to the red as it was the worst day yet. My eyes watered walking in my backyard and I could smell the smoke and then we got a quick downpour which helped a little. The AT did not get the shower so the hike was under a yellow sky.