Did State College smell smoky when you went outside Friday morning? Here’s why
Some Centre County residents may have smelled smoke in the air when they went outside Friday morning due to two different fires outside of the area.
There’s a large wildfire in Virginia and a prescribed burn in south central Pennsylvania Friday, the National Weather Service at State College said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Southwest winds are causing smoke to drift north,” the post stated.
Dan Pydynowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said the smoky smell would remain in the area until Friday evening when a cold front comes through and the wind direction changes.
“A cold front is going to come through and that’s going to switch our wind direction. The winds generally have been out of the Southwest, so the smoke from Virginia has been coming northeastward ... but once the wind flow switches early tonight behind the front, there will be more of a northwest wind flow. So at that point, once our winds shift, the smoke will be blown away from us and any additional fires that are still going in Virginia, as opposed to that smoke coming northward toward us, it’ll start going the other direction,” Pydynowski said.
He said any kind of smoke smell should disperse by later Friday night into Saturday, and the air quality should improve Saturday.
According to the AccuWeather forecast, the Friday morning air quality in State College was “poor,” and at an 82 on the air quality index.
“The air has reached a high level of pollution and is unhealthy for sensitive groups. Reduce time spent outside if you are feeling symptoms such as difficulty breathing or throat irritation,” the AccuWeather forecast read.
This isn’t the first time wildfires in other places have caused poor air quality or a hazy appearance in Happy Valley. In June, Centre County, and much of the East Coast, was blanketed in a smoky haze from wildfires in Canada, which affected the air quality.
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 11:13 AM.
