Update: Yucky Vermont Day: Air Pollution Alert and Severe Thunderstorm Possibilities

A very hazy "view" of St. Albans, Vermont this afternoon.
An air quality alert is in effect for all of the state due
to wildfire smoke coming in from Canada and the the 
western United States.

 An update from this morning's smoky post.

The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources as of this afternoon as issued an air quality alert for all of Vermont. A similar alert is up for all of New York State. 

That smoke is really hindering visibility and creating a hazardous amount of fine particulate matter in the air.

The air is nasty because of wildfire smoke drifting in from massive blazes in Canada and the western United States.

The murky air is, as the ANR puts it, "unhealthy for sensitive groups." They explain:

"Children and older adults, as well as people with heart or lung disease, should reduce prolonged or heavy exercise. Exposure to fine particles such as wood smoke can increase the likelihood of respiratory symptoms in sensitive individuals and aggravate heart or lung disease."

For those of us who are healthy, I'd avoid a lot of outdoor exercise anyway.  The air is not bad enough to make robust people keel over, that's for sure. But the smoke isn't good for you, anyway. 

The air quality index goes from a scale of good, with 0-50; moderate, 50-100; unhealthy for sensitive groups, 101-150 and just plain unhealthy for everyone, above 150.

The air quality in Burlington was at 141 early this afternoon and there were similar readings elsewhere in the state. So we're flirting with unhealthy for everybody. 

There's also a couple worse levels of air quality, including "hazardous" above 300. It won't get that bad, so I guess that's good?

It's also depressing. People come to the Green Mountain State, and we live here because, well, we enjoy looking at the Green Mountains. They're pretty much invisible in this smoke today. 

Large areas of the U.S. including Vermont, are under 
air quality alerts (gray areas) due to wildfire smoke
from western North America.

It's not just us. Air quality alerts are also up for much of the Northeast, and most if Wisconsin and Minnesota due to all this smoke. 

Back here in Vermont, there's still a good chance of developing showers and thunderstorms later this afternoon and this evening. 

Some questions exist as to whether the smoke that's partly blocking the sun will tamp down on instability,and thus the intensity of the storms. 

So far, they're developing despite the haze. 

Just as I was writing this, a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for all of Vermont. One area of concerning storms is up in Ontario, headed this way. There have been reports of extreme wind damage west of Ottawa. 

They could well remain damaging and severe as they cross the border into New York and Vermont later this afternoon and evening. 

A separate cluster of strong storms was headed into southwestern Vermont as of 3 p.m. More storms could develop elsewhere later.    A few might have damaging wind gusts. This won't be a widespread severe weather event, but a few places could get nailed. 

The good thing about these storms, if they develop, is they could wash some of the smoke out of the air, thereby improving air quality.