Air Quality Blog

  • NCDAQ & NWS: Collaboration for Air Awareness and Preparation
    Air Quality Forecasting As we have touched on in other posts in the past, the North Carolina Division of Air Quality (NCDAQ) is responsible for…
  • Seeing Through the Smoke to be Air Aware and Prepared
    Wildfires Air Quality Awareness Week begins with a look at wildfires and smoke. A wildfire is a fire that is either unplanned or out of…
  • A screenshot of the Air Quality Portal dashboard containing air quality and weather forecasts
    Air Quality Updates: What to Watch for in 2022
    That feeling of spring in the air will soon be joined by powdery puffs of pollen, some sniffs of smoke, and potentially even occasional unhealthy…
  • This graphic depicts what a cross-section of a surface temperature inversion looks like. There is a sunshine in the sky, some little houses to indicate smoke from residential wood burning, and mountains to depict pollution being trapped in a valley thanks to the warm air aloft.
    Winter Air Quality
    Have you noticed how fine particulate readings in the morning are often higher than the afternoon during the winter months? This is often due to…
  • Diagram of a BAM air quality monitor.
    Air Quality Monitoring
    Earlier this month we discussed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), but how do we measure air quality to ensure our air is within…
  • PM2.5 concentrations, winds, and NOAA OSPO’s smoke analysis at 3 pm on July 21, 2021.
    AIR Tool Offers Air Quality and Weather Data, in Detail
    This post originally appeared on the State Climate Office’s Climate Blog in August 2021 coinciding with the public launch of the Ambient Information Reporter. The State Climate Office…
  • A satellite image of North Carolina is shown. There are pins on the map to show the locations of monitoring sites across the state.
    Air Quality Monitoring
    A Statewide Effort Last month we discussed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), but how do we measure air quality to ensure our air…
  • National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
    In an earlier post, we discussed the Air Quality Index and how it measures the state of the air. We mentioned that the breakpoints for…
  • An image from a satelllie showing smoke transport from the September 2017 wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Hazy brown smoke is being carried by the jet stream from coast to coast across the United States.Actively burning areas are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC
    Atmospheric Dispersion and Pollution Transport
    In our forecast discussion, we will occasionally mention things like “limited dispersion” or “low mixing heights” – have you ever wondered what that means? It…
  • Text from image: Air Quality Alert Message Relayed by National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg SC 1035 AM EDT Sat May 22 2021 NCZ071-082-231445- Mecklenburg-Union NC- Including the cities of Charlotte, Huntersville, Matthews, Monroe, Trinity, Indian Trail, and Weddington 1035 AM EDT Sat May 22 2021 ...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING... The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in Raleigh NC has issued a Code Orange Air Quality Action Day for Ground Level Ozone for Mecklenburg and Union Counties, until 8 PM EDT this evening. An Air Quality Action Day means that Ground Level Ozone concentrations within the region may approach or exceed unhealthy standards. For additional information, please visit the North Carolina Division of Air Quality Web site at https://xapps.ncdenr.org/aq/ForecastCenterEnvista.
    Air Quality Alerts
    Occasionally, meteorologists at the Division of Air Quality will send out an Air Quality Alert – What does that mean? In our typical day to…
  • All About the Air Quality Index
    The Air Quality Index The Air Quality Index, or AQI, is a way to convey the state of air quality to the population. It is…
  • A diagram of ozone formation due to emissions and sunlight
    Ground-Level Ozone
    Tropospheric vs Stratospheric Ozone While many have heard of the ozone layer high up in the atmosphere that helps to shield the planet from solar…
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