Air Quality Awareness Week - Part 3 - Real-Time Oklahoma Air Quality

So now that we have covered a little bit about the history of air pollution and air regulations, and a little bit about the pollutants and Oklahoma trends, we get to find out what is happening here and now.

The first interesting tidbit is that there is such a thing as air quality forecast; this is similar to weather forecasting. The best place to see the forecast right now is to use AirNow – they have nifty infographics for particulates and ozone. I heard a rumor that AirNow’s forecasting will soon be discontinued? Well, I’m not sure on that.

If the air quality is anticipated to bad the next day, the Oklahoma DEQ calls an Ozone Watch. The purpose of this is to allow people to adjust their plans if necessary, and hopefully to encourage folks to take measures to help prevent ozone formation for that day. Ozone Watches are often broadcast on the news, but you can find out about them on the DEQ’s website. Tulsa has Ozone Alerts, which are basically the same thing.

But what is the air RIGHT NOW? AirNow has cool infographics for this as well; you can even loop the time period the way you can with weather radars and watch the pollution move across the landscape like a storm of approaching ozone! (This is most noticeable during the summer months)

 

If you are interested in exact measured values, or if you are curious about current levels of other pollutants, you can view the data from all of Oklahoma’s air quality monitors online in near-real-time.

Photo of McClain County Ozone Monitor

To research how local weather conditions may be affecting the air contaminants, you can cross-reference data from the air quality monitors with weather data from the nearest Oklahoma Mesonet or Weather Underground station. (The Mesonet stations will be more defensible for serious study, but Weather Underground may have stations that are nearer to the desired location)

If you are mostly concerned about ozone and particulates for health reasons, the easiest way to stay updated is to sign up for Health Advisories. You can do this through the DEQ website, and when the air quality in your county hits levels of concern, you will immediately be notified via email.

I hope you found this series of Air Quality Awareness Week posts interesting and informative! Go forth, padawans, and breathe deep! (To listen to a goofy hippie song about air pollution on YouTube, click here)

Air Quality Awareness Week - Part 2 - Air Emissions Trends and Oklahoma

National Trends

Thanks to the Clean Air Act and other air quality regulations (such as vehicle fuel standards), the overall air quality in the United States has actually improved in many ways since the onset of air science and air regulation in the 1950’s. I know it sounds hard to believe, but we have learned a lot as a country in the past 60 years of air control, and it shows. EPA's recent Air Trends Report describes the progress: Based on historical data, levels of every major Criteria Pollutant have decreased both in ambient levels (the level we are exposed to) and in amount of emissions.



Example Graph from Air Trends Report



This becomes more evident if you think back to the tragic events in Pennsylvania and London, where poor air quality resulted in the deaths of many perfectly fine, otherwise-healthy individuals (and these events were not isolated; there were others less note-worthy).

Nowadays, except for very extreme and rare circumstances, most healthy American citizens have less to worry about in terms of air. Some people are extra sensitive to air pollution and they still have to keep vigilant on air quality to protect themselves. These categories of folks are young people (who breathe more quickly than adults and whose lungs are still developing), older people (who are sometimes less physically resilient), and people with cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders (such as asthmatics and heart patients).

Ozone in Oklahoma

In Oklahoma, our major air pollutant of concern is ground-level Ozone. Ozone is a lung irritant, and especially problematic for asthmatics. Ozone is a secondary pollutant, meaning that it is not directly emitted, but is created as chemicals in the air react with each other. It is a summertime pollutant because the weather affects the rate of these reactions and the amount of ozone created. Oklahoma experiences higher levels of this pollutant for a variety of reasons. Some of these include:

• Interstate transport - ozone and ozone precursors blowing in from other states
• Weather - Hot, bright, still summers allow for more creation of ozone and allow the pollutant to linger for longer periods
• Urban sprawl and long commutes - Automobiles produce chemicals that react in the sun to create ozone (Nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds), and Okies love to drive. Our state is designed for vehicle transport.

Every summer in recent years, Oklahoma has had several days which exceed the NAAQS for ozone. It is possible that areas of Oklahoma - such as OKC and Tulsa - are on the verge of being designated as nonattainment for this pollutant; watch for this in the news in upcoming years.

PM2.5 in Oklahoma

The second pollutant that Oklahoma is sometimes concerned with is fine particulate matter. This is any thing in the air at all that is teeny tiny... less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. This can be tiny bits of dust, tiny bits of pollen, tiny bits of soot, even tiny vapor droplets. Particles of this size can be breathed in and travel deep into the lungs - penetrating farther due to their size - and our bodies have a difficult time cleaning them out. Oklahoma's major contributors for fine particulates are:

• Blowing dust
• Smoke from wildfires

 

Oklahoma Trends

Oklahoma's Department of Environmental Quality produces Air Data Reports each year so you can see what the monitored levels of various pollutants were in the state. The Air Data Report from 2012 is here. An example graph for Ozone is below.

Air Quality Advisory... and brief update on me

Today we have simultaneous plumes crossing the state, originating from Texas and fires in SE Oklahoma. Although Oklahoma's air quality is pretty good, this is one of the worse events in recent history, so if you have health conditions or are very young or very old in age it would behoove you to stay indoors this evening. Asthmatic ol' me is going to do just that, despite the seductively pleasant weather.

Now is an excellent time to tell you about the Air Quality Health Advisory mailing list that is provided to Oklahoma citizens by the DEQ. You get up-to-date alerts depicting spiffy graphics like the one below, with some extra information that I am not posting here, whenever conditions bring counties into the orange. (Not often - you might get a dozen emails a year, *maybe.*)

To sign up for the mailing list, go here:  http://www.deq.state.ok.us/aqdnew/AdvisorySignUp.htm
For more info on today's advisory, go here: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/AQDnew/advisory/index.htm

This week has left me feeling unexplainedly exhausted by the end of each day, and unwilling to spend much internet time catching up on emails and doing blog posts... so my apologies for being boring. I'm sure you have other things to do than wait breathlessly for me to get an energy spurt.