Philly is under an air-quality alert for Monday

An air-quality alert has been issued for Philadelphia and parts of Southwestern Pennsylvania as lingering smoke from the Canadian wildfires continues to drift toward the region.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Monday issued a “code orange” for the area, citing unhealthy pollution levels for young children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems. People vulnerable to poor air quality were urged to be careful, and those with breathing problems were urged to stay inside.

The DEP warning covers the Philadelphia region, including Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, as well as the Lehigh Valley, the Susquehanna Valley, and Pittsburgh, and is expected to remain in place until Tuesday.

Monday’s air-quality alert stands in contrast to the more serious alerts issued last week and earlier this month as smoke from fires that ravaged more than a million acres of Quebec woodlands generated smoke that affected air quality for a vast stretch of the eastern United States.

While smoke from the Canadian wildfires continues to drift toward the region, AccuWeather senior meteorologist David Dombek said that was only a “minor contributor” to the air-quality concern.

“Code orange it’s not unusual for the summer because wind decreases and the air becomes stagnant,” he said. “This is nothing anywhere near what we dealt with a couple of weeks ago.”

DEP officials recommend that people who are sensitive to poor air quality wear a mask outside and limit outdoor exercise. People with asthma, emphysema, or bronchitis, they said, should take precautions a step farther and stay inside.