Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Air Quality Awareness Days

Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 08:41 PM GMT del 30 Giugno 2005

The EPA has designated June 29 - July 1, "Air Quality Awareness Days". This designation is well-timed--the past two weeks have seen an unusual number of very hot days with light winds across large areas of the U.S. This, combined with June's high levels of UV light (which is needed to drive the chemical reactions that make smog), have conspired to produce some of the highest levels of air pollution across the U.S. in many years. Ground level ozone, the primary pollutant of concern in the summer, has been a particular problem. The EPA standard for ozone pollution is 80 ppb for an 8-hour period. If three or more violations of this standard occur in a year, the offending city must take action to reduce emissions or pay fines. There are a lot of cities that will be paying big bucks to reduce emissions, thanks to this June's hot weather. A sampling of who's been violating can be seen in the animation below. Everywhere the image is orange (AQI greater than 100), is an ozone air quality violation.

Chicago has had multiple sampling sites violate the ozone standard on 7 consecutive days.

Houston or Dallas (or both) have exceeded the ozone standard nearly every day the past week, with Houston posting a very unhealthy 103 ppb over an 8-hour period on June 28.

Denver recorded ozone violations at 2 locations on June 18.

California continues to lead the U.S. in air quality violations. If we take a look at the list of the 10 U.S. cities with the most ozone air pollution violations for 2004, five of the top seven cities are in California:

Number of 2004
City ozone violations
---------------------------------
Bakersfield,CA 103
Riverside, CA 88
Los Angeles, CA 65
Houston, TX 37
Sacramento, CA 25
Fresno, CA 23
Dallas, TX 20
Ventura, CA 17
Ft. Worth, TX 15
Orange County, CA 12

As part of Air Quality Awareness Days, the EPA urges everyone to be more aware of the types of air pollution their area encounters. They also have suggestions on what to do to protect your health during a high pollution event, and how you can cut down our contribution to air pollution levels. I highly recommend the EPA Airnow web site for those interested to learn more.

The good news is that overall, we have been making progress on reducing ozone pollution in the U.S. Nationally, 2003 levels were 9% lower than 1990 levels and 21% lower than 1980 levels. However, these statistics were unadjusted to reflect variations in meteorology, and the real ozone improvements are less than this. Certainly, this summer's hot weather will skew the statistics, perhaps so far as to make it so no net progress in ozone levels may be seen when compared to 10 years ago.

Dr. Jeff Masters

Hazy, Smoggy, Sunset (bigdawg)

Hazy Smoggy Sunset over Lincoln Hills Golf Course in Birmingham, Michigan. Temps were in the mid 90's again with very high humidity

Categories: Air and Water Pollution

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151. Alec 04:11 AM GMT del 26 Luglio 2005
good nite yall! tomorrow ill probably wake up in the 1940's. lol -nite

152. cjnew 04:35 AM GMT del 26 Luglio 2005
oh well i was just about to get back on and everyone decides to hit the hay.....i must say i feel like im rubbing off on some people... well if anyone is still on i'll be watching.....i was going to see if i could do that magical effect that was mentioned earlier..but i think i was too late so well...goodnight,goodnight to all insight maybe tomorrow Alec and stormtop will fight..so see ya tomorrow and i think everyone on this website......thanks for being so cool to me everyone!!! i dont know if that was considered a poem but the words rhymed. Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

153. cjnew 04:45 AM GMT del 26 Luglio 2005
wow the other blog is back but it only remembered to 384 and ironically enough i was the last comment saying how i messed itit up Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

154. cjnew 04:46 AM GMT del 26 Luglio 2005
that magical effect lacks magic and effect well .............CJ..........OUT!! Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

155. Alec 02:01 AM GMT del 27 Luglio 2005
well here i am again back in time june30. its almost august. this is driving me crazy.

156. Alec 01:43 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
hey why am i here????its not jun30.

157. cjnew 01:43 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
im here to Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

158. mobilehurricane 01:43 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
am i the first one to be back here again?!!!!!!!!

159. mobilehurricane 01:44 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
guess not!

160. Alec 01:44 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
no i was here first.

161. mobilehurricane 01:45 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
our time is the same

162. cjnew 01:45 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
maaaan!!! i want to go back Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

163. Alec 01:46 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
they just love splitting us up. im going to complain again to jeff until its fixed.

164. cjnew 01:46 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
its cux we arent neccesaril in the past we're just writining into it Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

165. mobilehurricane 01:46 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
i wonder when everyone else will show up here too?

166. cjnew 01:46 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
wow i messed that post up!!!! Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

167. Alec 01:47 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
they'll probably be sent back to the 1967 blog. so dont bank on it.

168. hurricanecrab 01:47 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
I haven't had anything like this happen to me since the '70s Member Since: Gennaio 20, 2005 Posts: 63 Comments: 9161

169. Alec 01:48 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
you messed it up cj? didnt that happen a couple days ago when you reached 700?

170. mobilehurricane 01:48 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
you're right...who knows? maybe they separated us by age groups and we are the only ones here...but what is cj doing here...jk!!!lol

171. Alec 01:49 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
you're here too hurricanecrab.

172. cjnew 01:49 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
i meant my post be fore it...have a look at it up there Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

173. Alec 01:49 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
lol

174. hurricanecrab 01:49 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
I kinda fancy time paradox..... fits into string theory in a benevolent way... am I talking to myself? Or an older version of me? Member Since: Gennaio 20, 2005 Posts: 63 Comments: 9161

176. cjnew 01:50 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
oh that was really funny!!! Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

177. Alec 01:50 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
hope not. i usually have conversations with myself when im ignored.

178. mobilehurricane 01:51 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
weall just got a month younger...i guess that's cool...except that would mean some people are getting close to 12 again

179. cjnew 01:51 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
me to...its funny though when i talk to myself i say way more Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

180. Alec 01:51 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
so i guess i wasnt born yet. its wayyyyy too early.

181. mobilehurricane 01:52 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
i wonder why they choose to send us back to this blog every time?

182. cjnew 01:52 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
really the age jokes must stop before you get me started...it wont be nice Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

183. Alec 01:52 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
my mistake. i didnt mean that. i must still be 19.

184. Floridagirl 01:52 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
This is cool, found it on the Nasa web site.. http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/goeseastnheir.html

185. hurricanecrab 01:53 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
haha this is a good thing. FUBAR = chaos St. Simmons - haven't heard THAT phrase in a while. good stuff Member Since: Gennaio 20, 2005 Posts: 63 Comments: 9161

187. Alec 01:53 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
because their going to do something to that other blog while we're not looking.

188. mobilehurricane 01:53 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
if it's not nice they will probably just send us somewhere else, they don't seem to have a problem with that

189. cjnew 01:54 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
yes ....to steves!!!!poof!!! Member Since: Luglio 22, 2005 Posts: 84 Comments: 2779

190. Alec 01:54 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
greetings Floridagirl! you must be new. at least that's what i think.

191. Alec 01:56 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
im going to cj's blog right now. see yall there!

192. Floridagirl 01:57 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
Oh thanks...Somewhat new :) I read more than I post.. But you all keep me smiling with your posts..Not much time to join in, but I think you all are great.

193. hurricanecrab 01:57 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
blogsurfing ye gods what madness....... why the 'ell not. HEY! I THINK I'M GETTING MY HAIR BACK! This time travel is good stuff! Crabby is gone too ** Member Since: Gennaio 20, 2005 Posts: 63 Comments:** 9161

194. STORMTOP 02:23 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
this is important the center has reformed south of 20 degrees...ita at 18 and 52...it seems to be moving west of due north and the trough is not effecting it..i think the northern leeward islands need to watch tis one very closely...

195. STORMTOP 02:25 AM GMT del 29 Luglio 2005
correction north of due west.......

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