Upgrades to North Carolina’s air quality monitoring tool allow Cumberland County residents to see air quality levels by the hour and with a wider scope than before.
The Ambient Information Reporter, developed by the North Carolina Division of Air Quality and the North Carolina State Climate Office (NCSCO) in 2021, is a tool that provides current and historical air quality data from multiple monitoring stations across the state. Values for each station are color-coded on a hazard scale as per the Air Quality Index (AQI), a system used by the government to report daily air quality and its impacts on public health. North Carolina also has an AQI portal with daily forecasts of air quality by county.
In an announcement on June 27, NCSCO described the upgrade as a “milestone moment” for the state’s air quality monitoring system.
“Informing users of the condition of their air quality will now be easier than ever before,” the announcement said.
Ground-level ozone
Air quality is especially important to monitor during the late spring and summer months, when ground-level ozone is heightened, according to NCSCO. Ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides — compounds released by the burning of fossil fuels and other combustion processes — react with pollutants from cars and industrial sources, as well as natural vegetation, in the presence of sunlight and hot weather. Exposure to ground-level ozone can lead to short-term health problems such as throat irritation, coughing and breathing difficulties. Long-term exposure can inflame and damage the airways, and worsen lung conditions like asthma, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
In the NCSCO’s June climate summary, published on July 7, Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis said the late-June heatwave in North Carolina had a detrimental impact on air quality in the state.
“Most recently, during our late-June heat wave, the combination of sunny skies, extreme temperatures, light winds, and a stagnant air mass overhead offered ideal conditions for ground-level ozone formation,” Davis said. He said the hourly AQI measurements in the upgraded tool were able to predict recent short-term ozone flares, such as a code red alert that occurred during the afternoon on June 23 in Person County.
“While the daily average AQI finished in the Code Green range, the Hourly AQI data might have convinced folks around Roxboro to hold off on their afternoon outdoor activities during those short-lived unhealthy conditions,” Davis said.
Wildfire smoke
In the June climate recap, Davis also called attention to the impact of recent wildfires in North Carolina on air quality in the surrounding areas. Wildfires contribute significantly to the other main category of air pollution, particle pollution. This pollution includes solid and liquid tiny particles that can cause wide-ranging health effects, including heart disease and heart attacks, lung disease and premature death in people with heart or lung disease. The smallest particles (PM2.5) from wildfires are especially harmful because they can penetrate deep into the lungs, harming the respiratory system.
The Ambient Information Reporter’s new features help it identify high levels of PM2.5 caused by wildfire smoke. The tool now incorporates data from PurpleAir sensors, low-cost sensors that residents can install and collect data from. While the state historically was not able to use these sensors in official air quality reports because of the potential for bias, NCSCO is now able to include the data in the state’s air quality monitoring tool by processing it through a bias correction algorithm from the EPA. The PurpleAir sensors are refreshed every 10 minutes.
Davis said the PurpleAir sensors were helpful when the Black Swamp fire burned 950 acres in the Croatan National Forest in eastern North Carolina in late April. A sensor in Maysville was the first to detect dangerously high pollutant levels from the fire, which helped inform and adjust the local air quality forecast quickly.
The sensors, Davis said, “help fill in gaps between existing regulatory monitors and pinpoint local impacts from events like these.”
For the latest air quality levels and forecasts in North Carolina, view the NCSCO’s air quality dashboard.
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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