A change in wind direction helps dissipate effects of smoke in Butler County
The air quality remained at Code Red in Butler Saturday afternoon, July 18, but the wet weather and change in wind pattern did help push some of the particles out of the region overnight and throughout the day.
Colton Milcarek, a meteorologist with National Weather Service Pittsburgh, said the rain that showered the region from Friday night and Saturday morning helped clean the air, which was bad quality because of fires in Minnesota and Ontario, Canada.
The air quality was not expected to return to normal levels Saturday, but predicted thunderstorms in the evening may further clear the air. During the Code Red air quality, fine inhalable particles of matter with diameters of 2.5 micrometers and smaller, a size unhealthy to all groups may be in the air.
The change in wind direction also aided in clearing the air, Milcarek said.
“For today, we switched over down to the South, from portions of the Mid-Atlantic,” Milcarek said of which direction the wind was coming from. “Right now it doesn't look like anything we saw Thursday or Friday. Sunday into Monday, it will not be as bad.”
National Weather Service Pittsburgh placed much of Western Pennsylvania, including Butler County, was put on a severe thunderstorm watch Saturday, which would be in effect until 9 p.m.
Milcarek said thunderstorms were predicted to hit Butler County from 6 until about 10 p.m.
“We're primarily looking at thunderstorms that will carry a chance for damaging wind,” he said.
