Air quality

[Interitus]

No, it's clearly been a fairly quiet news week that the media have chosen to pick up on this. Sure the pollution has been fairly high and widespread, and has been made more interesting by the coincidence with Saharan dust.

But here is an example pollution notification published by the London Air Quality Network as recent as just a couple of weeks ago, did this make the news? -

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/publicepisodes.asp?species=All&region=0&site=&postcode=&la_id=&level=All&bulletindate=12%2F03%2F2014&MapType=Google&zoom=9&lat=51.4750&lon=-0.119824&VenueCode=&bulletin=explanation&episodeID=PM10midMarch2014

 

Pollution Notification released on 17/03/2014

Pollution incident notification 12th to 14th March 2014.

 

London and South East England were affected by a widespread pollution episode that affected much of north-west Europe, including England, northern France (including Paris), Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. A high pressure system slowed the circulation of air across this area and cold, foggy nights that further hampered pollution dispersion. 

 

From the UK perspective the episode first impacted here on Wednesday 12th March with widespread moderate particle concentrations across London and south east England. Further feeds of ground level continental air caused the episode to intensify on Thursday 13th March with PM2.5 reaching "very high", the top level of the UK air quality index, across eastern parts of London; through Greenwich and in Bexley. 

 

"High" PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations continued on Friday 14th March before a return to a westerly airflow pushed the polluted air eastwards and began to disperse this over Europe on Saturday 15th March. "High" was measured in networks beyond London including Sussex, west Kent, Essex and Hampshire. 

 

This is the worst PM10 episode to affect London for two years; the mean background PM10 in London reached its greatest concentrations since 15th March 2012. Tracing back London’s air during this episode shows that air flowed across northern Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium before reaching us. This is reflected in the composition of particles measured by real-time aerosol mass spectrometers in London which showed a dominance of nitrate and organic particles, consistent with distant traffic emissions that have been chemically aged in the atmosphere.

 

During this episode 3.5 million pollution notifications were sent out to users of our smart phone apps across London and Sussex.

[Rustynailer]

Pity about the pollution bit, the dust is and has always been a valuable source of trace elements for trees and plants on our farmland and forests.

I have never seen so much of this African dust on my car before, any rain tonight will make it look like I do not care about having a clean car LOL How slobbish.....

[Thundery wintry showers]

Re. Interitus, maybe the current episode isn't that unusual for London, but it is for most of the other affected areas of the country.  However, I can see an argument that given how London-centric the media traditionally is, it is surprising that they have given the current episode so much extra coverage.

 

Here in rural North Yorkshire I went for a walk about 20 minutes ago and had to cut it short because I was developing significant asthmatic symptoms, which I can't remember ever happening to me before during a leisurely walk outside of town/city centre locations, as my asthmatic symptoms are normally very mild.  According to DEFRA's monitoring sites, Yorkshire's ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide levels are low but the particulate matter levels have returned to those during Monday's peak (typically 60-80, where 60 is classified as Moderate and 80 is getting into the High category).  It is unusual to have particulate matter levels as high as this in Yorkshire, though of course the London area, with widespread Very High readings, is much worse off.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Thundery wintry showers

[cheese]

Occasional bad pollution isn't uncommon in Leeds during high pressure. During the late May 2012 spell, the air was incredibly stagnant and dirty, especially in the Aire valley. In fact, people complained about stinging eyes because the air quality was so poor. Much worse in London of course by sheer virtue of it being a much larger city.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotohouse/6695074889/in/photostream/

Edited April 3, 2014 by cheese

[Bobby]

Hate this muggy, dirty continental air. Not feeling good the last few days, might be the sulphur dioxide - I have to avoid that in foods as it makes me ill and now have to breathe it in. Thank goodness the clean, fresh Atlantic air we usually enjoy here is returning soon.

[dragon falls]

Any one notice the rain is dirty at the moment it left brown spots on my coat shows up much muck is in the air at the moment glad it will be fresher on Friday

[Summer Sun]

Any one notice the rain is dirty at the moment it left brown spots on my coat shows up much muck is in the air at the moment glad it will be fresher on Friday

 

Yep its all the Saharan dust which is come up this week will all be starting to clear over the next 24 to 48 hours

[Summer Sun]

BBC weather for the weekend

 

Cleaner Atlantic Air

 

Less Pollution

 

Some rain, Sunny spells

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast-video/26871431

[dragon falls]

Lot of dust up there its muggy foggy now seems quite rare for April feels like June

[ANYWEATHER]

Pity about the pollution bit, the dust is and has always been a valuable source of trace elements for trees and plants on our farmland and forests.

I have never seen so much of this African dust on my car before, any rain tonight will make it look like I do not care about having a clean car LOL How slobbish.....

Yep, my sentiments exactly, never seen my vehicle covered in so much sand, and the feel and look of the day given this time of year is extremely unusual.

[The PIT]

Not enjoyed the last few days. Feels like a got a cold and chest is tight. Sounded like a 60 year old smoker this morning when I got up.

[Polar Maritime]

Unless i had not read about it i would of been completely unaware of the problem here, although there has been 2 days of continuous thick Fog.

[Snowyowl9]

3 years ago it was like this slack east winds march/april and lasted much longer,extremely hazy dirty looking air.

Lots of volcanoes around then though.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Here's another possible explanation for the elevated media attention:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/10739654/Air-pollution-What-they-are-not-telling-us-about-the-smog.html

 

 

on Tuesday the Met Office took over the responsibility for providing the Government with pollution forecasts, and enabled Defra to put much more information on its website for those that sought it.

[Bobby]

Air is much clearer and fresher today!

[cheese]

Indeed. All hail the Atlantic - the haze and mist have finally gone. I can see clearly now.

[Thundery wintry showers]

The haze/mist thinned here around noon and then cleared away completely at 5pm.  The PM10 concentrations at the Yorkshire monitoring sites fell abruptly from around 50 to 20 as the change occurred around 5pm.

[Summer Sun]

Tomorrow

 

Air pollution levels will be Moderate across much of Scotland and southwest England, also locally Moderate across southwest Wales, central and northeast England. Elsewhere air pollution levels will be Low.

 

 

Wednesday to Friday

 

Wednesday Moderate air pollution levels are expected across much of Wales, southwest England and northern Scotland. Elsewhere air pollutions levels will be predominantly Low. Thursday parts of Wales, southwest England and the Northern Isles will keep Moderate air pollution, with mostly Low air pollution levels elsewhere. Friday Low air pollution levels are expected across the entire UK.

[Derp Patrol]

I'd much rather have polluted hazy blue skies than this Atlantic dross. Absolutely awful weather. Bring back the warmth please!

[Evening thunder]

clearer blue skies today though - much better. I'm kinda glad I was out the country last week rather than near London

[Interitus]

An updated pollution notification from the London Air Quality Network regarding this episode in agreement with my previous post on the matter, confirming that the mid-March event was more serious and the coinciding Saharan dust helped raised the interest -

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/publicepisodes.asp?species=All&region=0&site=&postcode=&la_id=&level=All&bulletindate=31%2F03%2F2014&MapType=Google&zoom=9&lat=51.475&lon=-0.11982399999999416&VenueCode=&bulletin=explanation&episodeID=PM10PM25EarlyApril2014

 

Pollution Notification released on 04/04/2014

Monday started with many people waking to find their cars covered in Saharan dust which attracted considerable press coverage. 

While this was forecast to continue throughout the week, and further deposits were seen, the extent to which this contributed to the air pollution at ground level is the subject of ongoing research. 

The particles that have a health impact (PM10 & PM2.5) are much smaller than the visible Saharan dust deposits. 

 

The light southerly winds that arrived in the UK between Monday and Thursday had travelled over France at low altitude for around three days, accumulating urban and industrial pollution. 

Once they arrived over the UK, our own local emissions added to the pollution mix. 

 

Throughout the episode exhaust emissions, both continental and local, were identified as a major component of the pollution 

 

Monday 31st and Tuesday 1st April London saw widespread ‘moderate’ particulate, both PM10 & PM2.5. The air arriving on these days would have been carrying weekend emissions from France. 

 

On Wednesday 2nd, the weekday emissions from France started to arrive and combined with our own emissions. PM2.5 showed a steady rise throughout Wednesday and into the early hours of Thursday. PM10 however showed a marked increase during the Wednesday morning rush hour; indicating the mixed nature of the pollution sources during this episode. 

 

Widespread ‘High’ PM10 & PM2.5 was recorded throughout London on both Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd. Outside London, widespread ‘moderate’ levels of pollution occurred across the south-east and a single site beside the A1 in Bedfordshire reached ‘High’. 

 

Overnight on Thursday a change to winds from the Atlantic started to bring a clearance although, with winds still light, this was initially slow. 

 

Although this episode attracted significant press and public interest, pollution levels were actually higher during the previous episode of mid-March (12th – 14th) when levels reached ‘Very High’.

[Thundery wintry showers]

My criticisms of this assessment are identical to previously- isn't this only covering the Home Counties region, particularly in and around London?

 

Here in North Yorkshire it was a very different story.  For example, I've loaded up the historical stats for PM10 concentrations at York Bootham, and the maximum daily mean amount during the second week of March was 37 Âµg/m3 (13th March) while in the later episode, the mean on the 31st March, which was a particularly hazy day here, reached 57 Âµg/m3.

 

I checked out Norwich Lakenfields and there was a much smaller difference between the two episodes there, with a maximum daily mean of 43 Âµg/m3 during the 12th-14th March episode and then 47 Âµg/m3 during the end of March/early April episode.

 

At Birmingham Tyburn the latter episode was also only slightly higher, with a max daily mean of 67 Âµg/m3 in the first episode and 72 Âµg/m3 in the second.

 

What would normally surprise me in this situation is that given how London-centric the media is, I would normally expect them to agree with Interitus's assessment, but not in this case, as I think the fact that the Met Office took over pollution forecasting duties during the second episode and published more freely-available maps and data on them, combined with the Saharan dust factor, go a long way towards explaining the difference in coverage.

[Summer Sun]

Pollution effecting weather patterns?

 

New study suggests that pollution could be impacting on weather patterns in the northern hemisphere.

 

BBC Weather's Susan Powell discusses why this might be happening with Jon Sopel on BBC World.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/27026009

[pip22]

The truth behind air quality is that poor air quality in the past were ignored by the media. I believe Summer last year we had some hot, hazy days which maybe have pollution but the media just wouldn't covered it. Its just about time they finally just covered it this week. Millions of people died from pollution around the world including Europe but the media didn't get much coverage on it and cared about it. The media seems to think poor air quality is actually alright but is not, its bad for your health.

 

Media is sometimes can be quite ''out of touch'' at times.

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/470209/Toxic-smog-clouds-have-hit-Britain-900-times-in-just-five-years

 

Daily Express had even said it.

[Summer Sun]

Moderate pollution levels are expected over the next few days in some locations

 

Tomorrow

 

Air pollution levels across England and Wales will be generally Low. Parts of central and south-eastern Scotland may experience Moderate pollution. In southern England and Wales isolated Moderate levels may be reached close to busy roads due to light winds allowing the build up of locally emitted pollution.

 

 

Friday to Sunday

 

Low or Moderate levels of pollution are expected on Friday and Saturday, with continental airflow. Low levels Sunday with northeast airflow from North Sea.