Wildfire smoke is back, but this time it’s not as severe and won’t stick around

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is back in the central Virginia air — again. 

Monday afternoon, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality elevated its air quality alert for Albemarle County to “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

This means that people with health conditions (especially heart and lung conditions) could experience negative health effects due to the air quality, and should limit their time outdoors if possible.

The haze isn’t likely to stick around for long this time though, said CBS 19 meteorologist Travis Koshko.

“Winds should shift tomorrow [Tuesday] afternoon to the southwest, reducing the smoke concentration. There may be some lingering smoke in the air from Tuesday afternoon on, but nowhere near the levels we had in late June,” Koshko said Monday.

In June, air quality reached “unhealthy” and, later in the month, “very unhealthy” levels from these same wildfires, which have been burning since April and are so widespread and so severe that firefighters are struggling to contain them. Millions of acres have burned so far in what is Canada’s worst wildfire season in at least 40 years, by a significant margin, CNN reported.

As Charlottesville Tomorrow previously reported, this could be a recurring event throughout the summer, depending on the state of the wildfires and weather patterns.

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