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Air Quality Alert

Posted on by MichaelV (Otsego)

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed an Air Quality Index that is used to report air quality. This AQI is divided into six categories indicating increasing levels of health concern. An AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality and below 50 the air quality is good.  Below is today’s AQI forecast.

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The AQI is based on the five “criteria” pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. The EPA has established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for each of these pollutants in order to protect public health. An AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to the level of the NAAQS for the pollutant.  The Clean Air Act (USA) (1990) requires EPA to review its National Ambient Air Quality Standards every five years to reflect evolving health effects information. The Air Quality Index is adjusted periodically to reflect these changes.

Very warm and more humid weather is in store today, but the passage of a front tonight will usher in comfortable humidity levels again for Tuesday through Thursday. An isolated shower or storm may accompany the front tonight, (less than a 20% chance) otherwise dry weather will continue to prevail through most of the week. Humidity will be on the increase again toward the end of the week and for next weekend, with a few showers or storms possible.

 

 

Category: Michigan Weather Forecast

30 thoughts on “Air Quality Alert”

  1. Oh well…it was a short summer, but at least it was mild. Heard our first couple of Cicadas earlier today…the truly official “end of summer” 🙁 Nothing but sustained cold weather from this point, as usual. Three mild weeks amounts to a summer in MI. Glad we experienced it.

    1. We need rain badly. Burn bans are in effect around here. Fires have been caused by fireworks. I’ve been doing my best to keep the lawn looking good, but I’m using so much water now. I’m seriously considering letting the lawn go for the season.

      1. If you let it go dormant it will come back they say. I have seen people do this.

        1. It does, but it is still early in the season. I spend a lot of time and money in our landscaping. I hate to see it burned up already. ☹

    2. We need rain here too.. It seems like we are watering the gardens daily. We got huge tomatoes growing.

  4. Rocky’s CPC map below just updated this afternoon to show another heat wave LOL

    2. I was just looking at that and scratching my head. Why would the Rock guy/gal be posting CPC maps of way above normal temps? Ha.

  6. Here is a fun fact. In July of 1918 at Houghton Lake just 2 nights after a 9 day heat wave the temperature fell all the way down to 30° on July 31st and that was NOT the coldest low for that month as the reading was only 28 on July 2nd. For the month the range was from 93 (twice) to 28° Highs of 92, 91 and 90 (twice) lows of 30 were also reported twice (on the 8th and again on the 31st) Lows of 34, 37 and 39 were also reported. In August of 1918 the range was from a hot high of 100 on August 6th to a crisp low of 32 on the 1st and 3rd
    Slim

  7. It’s becoming increasingly dry around here but none the less we are having great summer weather with lots of sun shine and warm to very warm temperatures. I know some who post on here would rather have it much cooler but hey its summer time get out and enjoy the nice warm sunny days.
    Slim

  8. Thanks to Chicago, coal powered plants, and a lack of clean air initiatives, West Michigan continually has some of the most polluted air around. The number of low air quality days is damaging to anyone living in it. Communities must start investing in cleaner air now.

    1. yeah – like the neighbors dog pooping in your yard and they won’t clean it up.. 🙁

  9. We would have to go back more than a month to see a single day greater than 3 degrees below average. That is a remarkable warm spell.

    1. Who would have thought that during a Heat Wave that temperatures could have gotten as low as they did over the week end? Here are some lows from Saturday morning across the state.
      Leota 39°
      Atlanta (about 40 miles west of Alpena 40°
      Grayling 40°
      Mio 43°
      Evart 44°
      Cadillac 44°
      Houghton Lake 46°
      And Grand Rapids low of 54 was the coolest since a 48° on June 6th even on Sunday morning there were some cool lows around the state with lows of
      Ann Arbor 44°
      Grayling 42°
      Flint and Marshall 50°
      Remember no matter how “hot” it gets cooler days are on there way LOL
      Slim

      1. Yet GR was a whopping 3 degrees below average on this “cold” day. Shows you just how hot it’s been I guess.

  10. After a warm May and a warm June, here we are with another HOT week upcoming with several 90’s. I remember some on here and WOOD said we’d start cooling down around July 8th or 9th. That looks to not be the case anymore.

    1. And just think this happened after a cold April when several locations in lower Michigan had one of their coldest Aprils in history. Here is the list for southern lower Michigan. The only location not in the top ten was Detroit. Here is the ranking of April 2018 across Southern lower Michigan
      Detroit 13th coldest
      Flint coldest (1st)
      Saginaw 2nd coldest
      Grand Rapids 4th coldest
      Lansing 8th coldest
      Muskegon 3rd coldest
      Things can and do change fast sometimes.
      Slim

          1. You seem to mention April a lot on here… And I think you mean April comes *before* May.

    2. LOL are you really talking about extended heat waves that don’t exist?

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