A fast-moving wildfire continues to burn in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens as of Wednesday morning, chomping on more than 11,000 acres and only being 30% contained, according to officials. For Wednesday, an Air Quality Alert is in effect for Ocean County, near the site of the fire, where air quality could become unhealthy for sensitive groups. At this time, we don’t see these alerts expanding to other parts of our region because winds are generally light and coming out of the northwest. This means that the majority of the smoke from the fire is being directed south and east, blowing primarily offshore and staying south of the NYC Metro Area. So, like, if you’re curious about the air quality, just type in your zip code on the AirNow.gov website. Once you type it in, there’s a dial that shows up on the right, which tells you stuff like the NowCast AQI color, number, and category, the hour of the last update, and the primary pollutant, you know, the one with the highest AQI. The U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI) is a tool used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to communicate with the public about outdoor air quality and health. It includes six color-coded categories, each corresponding to a different level of concern. Not really sure why this matters, but it’s particularly important to keep the AQI level in mind for health reasons, especially if you have health issues. So, like, here are the daily AQI color levels of concern and values of index, describing air quality, from green being good to maroon being hazardous.
