The National Weather Service and state environmental agencies had 234 active alerts posted Friday tied to wildfire smoke and fire weather, up from Thursday’s 169, even as the geographic footprint narrowed slightly to 19 states and the District of Columbia from Thursday’s 21 states and D.C.
The new development is a shift from visibility problems to a direct public health warning. The Maryland Department of the Environment issued a Code Red Air Quality Alert for fine particulates across the Maryland Eastern Shore, in effect until midnight EDT — a level the agency classifies as unhealthy for everyone, not just sensitive groups. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality followed with its own Code Red for the Richmond Metro area, an alert that also extends north and northeast of Richmond and into the Virginia Eastern Shore, also until midnight EDT. A broader Code Orange — unhealthy for people with respiratory or heart conditions — covers the Hampton Roads area, south-central Virginia and the Eastern Virginia Piedmont. Both agencies are warning residents in the Code Red zones to avoid prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion, with added risk for anyone with existing respiratory or heart ailments.
The alert list shows dozens of Virginia counties and independent cities under some form of advisory, from Northumberland and Lancaster on the Northern Neck down through Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Suffolk, plus a wide band of Indiana counties including Marion, Hamilton, Tippecanoe and Vigo. Fire weather offices are also renewing red flag guidance in the Pacific Northwest; NWS Medford is directing residents to county fire-restriction sign-up pages and urging caution with any outdoor spark source.
The roster has also turned over since Thursday. Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine, which joined the list for the first time Thursday, are not on Friday’s roster. Indiana, which had dropped off Thursday’s list after appearing Wednesday, is back. Wyoming remains absent. The states still carrying alerts Friday are Colorado, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
The pattern points to a fire-weather system that is intensifying in fewer places rather than spreading further — 65 more alerts than Thursday concentrated across two fewer jurisdictions. Residents in the Mid-Atlantic under Code Red should limit time outdoors until the advisories lift at midnight; those elsewhere under red flag warnings should avoid any outdoor burning while warnings remain posted.
Cities under alerts Friday include Washington weather, Norfolk weather, Virginia Beach weather, Minneapolis weather and Portland weather.