Code Orange Air Quality Alert lifted for parts of Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG — A Code Orange Air Quality Alert issued for Tuesday has been canceled.

The alert was issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for:

• The southeastern counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia;
• The Lehigh Valley-Berks area, which includes Berks, Lehigh and Northampton counties; and
• The southwestern counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland.

A combination of mostly sunny skies and high temperatures in the middle-90s will likely contribute to eight-hour average concentrations of ozone in the Code Orange range on Tuesday.

You can learn more about the alert by clicking here.

Because of the calm and sunny conditions coupled with the recent Fourth of July fireworks shows, there’s likely a good amount of residual smoke still in the air.

“The ozone levels are high and the rumor is that because of the fireworks the other night and the inversion all of the pollutants had nowhere to escape so everything started getting trapped and yesterday’s numbers were probably the highest I’ve seen since I moved back to Pittsburgh 16 years ago,” Channel 11 Meteorologist Scott Harbaugh said.

I-79 closure in Coraopolis could drastically affect commute times next week