HARRISBURG, Pa. — Harrisburg and York are rated among the worst cities in the nation in air quality index on Thursday, due to the hazardous smoke from the ongoing wildfires in Eastern Canada that is lingering across Central Pennsylvania.
As of 4 a.m. on June 8, Harrisburg ranked a 476 on the Air Quality Index, which only goes to 500.
As of 9 a.m., that number had lowered to 387, but still had Harrisburg among the worst cities for air quality in America on Thursday.
As of 5:45 a.m. in York, the Air Quality Index ranked the city at 466.
As of 7:00 a.m., that number had dropped to 409, but like Harrisburg, had York ranked among the worst cities in the nation for air quality.
For comparison, neighboring metropolis Philadelphia's air quality index ranked in the 200's on Thursday morning.
Environmental experts say the unhealthy air quality levels have not been this high in two decades.
With weather systems expected to hardly budge, the smoky blanket billowing from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina and northern Europe should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend.
The weather system that's driving the great Canadian-American smoke out — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — "will probably be hanging around at least for the next few days,” U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey said.