Pittsburgh air quality: Will Pirates play today during Canadian wildfire smoke?

Smoke has blown over to the Eastern side of the United States after stnading in the midwest on Tuesday. Will it impact the Pirates game on Wednesday?

On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh area is being impacted by smoke from the Canadian wildfire smoke polluting the air. The smoke hit the midwestern portion of the country on Tuesday and has made its way East.

Early Wednesday, it has fans asking whether or not the Pittsburgh Pirates game hosting the San Diego Padres, scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET will go on as scheduled.

Here’s what we know so far.

Pittsburgh air quality

The closest air quality measurement to PNC Park, via Google Maps which pulls data from PurpleAir, is reporting at 178 as of just after 11:45 a.m. Eastern in Pittsburgh.

Chicago measured well above 200 on Tuesday, for comparison.

Here’s a look at the scenery in Pittsburgh today. Similar to Chicago, visibility is greatly diminished with a milky, smoky presence in the air.

Will Pirates play today during Candian wildfire smoke?

At this point, it’s unclear if the Pirates and Padres will be playing or not tonight. The game can not be postponed by the teams, only the league office can postpone the game officially.

The league, notably, did not change anything about the Cubs game on Tuesday night which, so far, had worse air quality than Pittsburgh is seeing so far today. There have been critiques about that approach considering it put over 37,000 people in a situation where they were breathing in abnormally polluted air.

Pittsburgh and much of Western PA is under a “code red” due to the air quality on Wednesday. 

Alternatives for Padres vs Pirates

The Padres and Pirates have a noon first pitch tomorrow. They could squeeze in a doubleheader, but it’s not preferable since the Padres need to get on a flight at night. That said, their next visit is Cincinnati, so it could be more favorable than making another unscheduled trip to Pittsburgh later in the season.

Alternative venues largely aren’t available. Most others in the area are either in-use today or in equally bad situations as far as air pollution is concerned.