Sacramento Air Quality Index (AQI) and California Air Pollution

What is the air quality in Sacramento?

Air timbre in Sacramento by and large averages a US AQI denounce of less than 50, or “ good. ” The “ thoroughly ” atmosphere quality distinction describes air that is satisfactory and poses small to no gamble to health .
PM2.5 is one of six criteria pollutants measured by the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) to determine an air quality rate. due to the pollutant ’ mho prevalence and relatively high health risk, it is frequently responsible for determining the overall air choice exponent ( AQI ). In 2019, Sacramento averaged a PM2.5 level of 8.7 ug/m3, thereby meeting the World Health Organization ( WHO ) target for annual exposure ( < 10 μg/m3 ). November, December, and January experienced average ratings of “ moderate ” that failed to meet US EPA standards. November was the most pollute month of 2019, with a monthly PM2.5 average of 21.9 μg/m3, or AQI 72, followed by December ( 15.9 μg/m3 ) and January ( 13.6 μg/m3 ) .
Elevated pollution levels in the winter are coarse around the worldly concern. This is typically because of increase wood burn and heating system arsenic well as temperature inversions that prevent polluted air from dispersing. In 2019, particularly during November, elevated air pollution levels in Sacramento were largely attributable to wildfires, such as the Ranch open fire in Tehama County that burned more than 2,500 acres, and the Kincade fire in Sonoma County that burned 77,758 acres.1,2 Winter months in Sacramento besides experience impregnable cool air inversions as a leave of the city ’ s hard-hitting system, which can contribute to sustained high breeze contamination levels .
ozone is another pollutant of concern in Sacramento. nationally, Sacramento is the fifth most ozone-polluted city according to the 2019 State of the Air report released by the American Lung Association, comparing 228 metropolitan areas.3 Although the city ’ second ranking has remained relatively consistent for the last several years, true ozone levels have actually gone gloomy by 40 % in the last 20 years.4 still, Sacramento experiences an average of 25 high-ozone days per annum, far above the commend target of 3 days or less.3

Air pollution data varies hourly and day by day. In order to properly protect oneself from the health effects of air befoulment, refer to the top of this foliate for Sacramento ’ s forecast breeze quality data and real-time air quality data .

Has air quality improved in Sacramento?

Since the establishment of the Clean Air Act and more recent legislation including the 1990 amendments, vent timbre has drastically improved across the state of matter of California.4 In 2007, regulations on woodwind burn contributed to a 41 % decrease in PM2.5 levels over 4 years. But since 2011, Sacramento ’ sulfur progress has not been a straight line. Sporadic and unpredictable wildfires greatly influence annual averages, making air travel befoulment levels more unmanageable to control .
Year-over-year data, for example, shows that Sacramento ’ s air out quality rose 27.8 % from 2017 to 2018, then fell 40.8 % from 2018 to 2019. These fluctuations reflect an unusually dangerous wildfire season in 2018. This falter criminal record for PM2.5 levels, however, has resulted in no clear improvement course since 2011 .
While particle publicize pollution and overall AQI in Sacramento has remained relatively stable in recent years, actual city-wide emissions of particulate count and ozone harbinger pollutants have steadily decreased due to execution of local anesthetic, state, and federal emission master programs .
ozone is normally formed in the atmosphere from volatile organic compounds ( VOC ) and oxides of nitrogen ( NOx ) reacting to ultraviolet radiation. Emissions for both precursor pollutants have fallen steadily in recent years despite gains in population, vehicles, and economic exploitation. The largest reduction in this segment is attributable to gas-powered vehicles. From 2000 to 2015, effective regulations on vehicles have resulted in a 66 % reduction of VOCs and a 62 % reduction for nitrogen oxides.4
The most recent legislation governing Sacramento air pollution was established in 2017 by Governor Jerry Brown under Assembly Bill ( AB ) 617. The charge seeks to protect communities disproportionately impacted by air contamination through a five-pronged approach : increased community-level air monitor, discharge decrease plans, revue and retrofit of industrial facilities, more comprehensive discharge report requirements, and greater penalties for polluters.5 While such retain efforts are critically authoritative to foster reducing pollution levels in the area, the on-key effect of this legislation on publicize quality levels is yet to be seen .

Why does Sacramento have unhealthy air quality?

Sacramento ’ s insalubrious vent quality is largely the solution of transportation run down, which serves as the most meaning unmarried source of vent befoulment in the area.6 daily emissions are frequently exacerbated by environmental factors of the Sacramento valley, which can lead to an accretion of pollute breeze. These factors include temperature inversions, high heat, abundant fair weather, surrounding mountains, and relatively dead air .
temperature inversions are a weather phenomenon in which ardent air is layered on top of cool ground-level air, preventing the cool air from dispersing. In Sacramento, temperature inversions occurring in the summer, fall, and winter differ by beginning, but are alike in impression. Summertime temperature inversions, besides called marine inversions, are the solution of cooler marine air trapped under hot summer air flowing in. These inversions tend to be less hard in their impingement on air quality than the cool air out inversions of the fall and winter, which result from a high blackmail cell. Inversions during descent and winter, brought on by pressure systems, are not easily affected by wind and, as a resultant role, tend to have a more significant impact on publicize timbre. In 2019, the most pollute months in Sacramento were November, December, January, and October ( in that order ).

Wildfires have besides recently contributed to ephemeral befoulment spikes. Air pollution resulting from the 2018 Camp Fire, for case, caused the Sacramento air quality index to reach “ hazardous ” levels, topping the Major City Ranking for worst air pollution globally for several hours.7 As ball-shaped warming contributes to increasingly hotter and drier climates, the frequency and austereness of wildfires is expected to increase .
The live Sacramento air quality map is utilitarian in determining the origin of contaminated air out and discovering factors that determine real-time readings. such analysis, for case, can indicate whether befoulment is blown in from wildfire smoke or elevated due to summertime marine inversions .

Where is air quality worse, San Francisco or Sacramento?

Sacramento air timbre systematically fares worse than San Francisco air timbre for measures of short-run ozone, short-run PM2.5, and annual PM2.5 .
short-run ozone befoulment is evaluated as a number of days per year that exceed 24-hour guidelines. The US EPA recommends a annually allowance of no more than 3.2 unhealthy days per year. In the 2016 to 2018 monitoring period, Sacramento averaged 25 unhealthy ozone days per year, while San Francisco averaged zero insalubrious ozone days per year .
The US EPA sets the lapp standard for short-run PM2.5, requiring that the number of unhealthy PM2.5 days per year not exceed 3.2. In the 2016 to 2018 monitoring period, Sacramento averaged 11.3 unhealthy PM2.5 days per class while San Francisco averaged slenderly less at 9.2 insalubrious PM2.5 days per year .
annual PM2.5 concentrations are typically evaluated in terms of the US EPA standard ( less than 12 μg/m3 ) or the world health organization criterion ( less than 10 μg/m3 ). Over the last three years, Sacramento systematically experienced higher annual PM2.5 averages than San Francisco :

2017
2018
2019

Sacramento
11.5 μg/m3
14.7 μg/m3
8.7 μg/m3

San Francisco
10 μg/m3
12.6 μg/m3
7.1 μg/m3

Sacramento besides tends to fare worse for air travel timbre than other Bay Area cities, reporting a higher annual AQI ( 36 ) than Oakland ( AQI 29 ), Santa Rosa ( AQI 28 ), San Jose ( AQI 27 ), and Walnut Creek ( AQI 27 ) .

When is the smoke going to clear in Sacramento?

Wildfires can burn for days and weeks at a time. environmental scientists have found that holocene years have been increasingly prone to long-burning and severe wildfires, a vogue attributed to human-caused climate transfer. Likewise, Sacramento vent quality has been trending toward more unhealthy befoulment days per class, as a solution.

even during prolong periods of sustain nearby wildfire emissions, measured air choice in Sacramento may vary drastically daily, hour-to-hour. Weather is a key indicator. Wind, precipitation, and temperature conditions all play significant roles in determining Sacramento ’ s stream air travel choice. Wind and rain can help disperse and tamp down pollution, while a lack thence can cause emissions to accumulate. hard-hitting cells and thermal inversions can besides be indicative, determining whether emissions disperse naturally or become “ trapped. ”
IQAir forecast breeze quality data for Sacramento uses machine learning to analyze millions of data points, such as atmosphere quality and weather measurements, in order to predict when fume in Sacramento will clear. While wildfires are unmanageable to predict, as an changing emission reference, forecast air out quality data can be a utilitarian joyride for planning ahead to reduce one ’ south contamination exposure .
+ Article Resources

[ 1 ] Cal-Fire – ranch Fire. ( 2020 ).
[ 2 ] Cal-Fire – Kincade Fire. ( 2020 ).
[ 3 ] State of the Air – 2020. ( 2020 ).
[ 4 ] Air quality trends. ( 2020 ).
[ 5 ] Community air travel protective covering. ( 2020 ).
[ 6 ] Lorenzen A. ( 1974 ). climate of the Sacramento Valley air washbasin. California Air Resources Board : part of Technical Services.
[ 7 ] Masters J. ( 2018, November 16 ). fume from Camp Fire making Sacramento the most contaminated city on Earth .