Montreal City Weblog

Kate 10:55 on 2020-02-03 Permalink Reply  

• EmilyG 12:57 on 2020-02-03 Permalink

  Yeah.
  I have bad lungs. With the smog, and with that jerk who thought it was okay to smoke inside a bus shelter yesterday, my lungs were extra-bad.

• Mark Anto 15:02 on 2020-02-03 Permalink

  It’s up there, but we had 3 days around or above 100 around February 22-24 2017 (https://aqicn.org/city/montreal/) so this isn’t unheard of.

  If you look at this website (which I share as much as possible in case people haven’t seen it), it shows a clear temperature inversion in Feb 2017 around those dates. If you click at the temperature at different altitudes, you’ll see 1C and no wind at 2m and 5C and lots of wind at 1500m. The polluted air has nowhere to go, doesn’t rise, doesn’t blow away, it’s trapped at ground level and accumulates.

  https://www.ventusky.com/?p=45.61;-73.67;8&l=temperature-2m&t=20170223/0600

  This time around, not as much a temperature inversion as a complete lack of wind at ground level for the past 3 days. No wind=no clearing out of pollutants.

  https://www.ventusky.com/?p=45.61;-73.67;8&l=wind-10m&t=20200203/0000

  Just for fun, the last time the air pollution index was over 100 was Feb 11 2018. Have a look at the wind and weather at ground level and 1500m. Windy and warm above the city, stale and cold at street level.

  https://www.ventusky.com/?p=45.61;-73.67;8&l=temperature-900hpa&t=20180212/0000

  m

• Kate 16:22 on 2020-02-03 Permalink

  Thanks for all the data, Mark Anto!