Welcome to Southern California! Bring a Gas Mask

is it the fires?

 

Looks like it shouldn't be. The entire PNW has green air quality now, so no smoke coming down from here. And the air quality stations around the remaining CA fires are showing more at green status than all else.

And 87 days goes back to long before we were having wildfire smoke issues.

 

Air quality in Northern California has improved since the Mendocino Complex fire has been extinguished.

That raged for over 40 days and kept a haze in the air.

Back to sunny clear days now.

 

I'm sure DPRC will come up with a solution.

 

Read the article, no mention of Santa Ana winds (wind from the southeast) but a mention of inversions trapping particulates, forget a smog mask, carry oxygen.

 

If the CARB board would stop giving Hydrogen vehicles triple the credits as Electric ones, that would speed the introduction of ZEVs.

 

LOL...

I've been using just PRC for years, but now that it's politically incorrect to use the term Chicom......I'll be plagiarizing that!

OK...
So the air quality index.
Older submariners used to say that they didn't trust air that they cannot see - ironically a quote that was used in an unfortunate Hollywood movie about what they suppose modern submarines must be like, but like submarines, air quality on the left coast isn't quite as bad as it was 'back in the day.'
So.....what gives?

Some theorize that our changing climate might be at work, causing more days that have AQI values that are "high."
Others theorize that the indices might have been tweaked.
Still others say that there are many more stations that monitor air quality, so this results in "statistically" dirtier air.

Me?
I blame Prop 64.

YMMV

 

CA Fires and pollution from China/Southeast Asia have played an increasing roll in the last few years, but most of this is increasingly stringent measurement “artifact”. Posted in a different thread a few months ago:

Here's the timeline of the EPA's progressively more stringent O3 standards:

Table of Historical Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) | Ozone Pollution | US EPA


Date: Feb 8, 1979
Indicator: O3
Averaging Time: 1 hour
Level: 0.12 ppm
Form: Attainment is defined when the expected number of days per calendar year, with maximum hourly average concentration greater than 0.12 ppm, is equal to or less than 1

Date: Jul 18, 1997
Indicator: O3
Averaging Time: 8 hours
Level: 0.08 ppm
Form: Annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hr concentration, averaged over 3 years

Date: Mar 27, 2008
Indicator: O3
Averaging Time: 8 hours
Level: 0.075 ppm
Form: Annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hr concentration, averaged over 3 years

Date: Oct 26, 2015
Indicator: O3
Averaging Time: 8 hours
Level: 0.070 ppm
Form: Annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8 hour average concentration, averaged over 3 years


So, from 1979-1997 ozone standards remained the same. But starting in 1997, they have been tightened 3 times. So without any change in ozone levels, ozone air quality would appear to worsen...

 

but the o/p's pictures... were taken with a kodak brownie when he was a kid?

 

I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1950s-60s, early 1970s, where, except for the smog, it was a very, very nice place to live. I could bike to the beaches, bike to the lakes near the foothills, drive 20 minutes to Disneyland, where, it was FREE to enter, just had to buy tickets if you wanted to ride one of the attractions -- I think Great Moments with Mister Lincoln was free at that time.

Steve Martin worked in the magic shop. It was paradise -- except for the smog.

From my home, which was about Four or Five miles as the crow flies to Parker Center (featured on all the Dragnet episodes) you could, on a rare winter day, see the top of Parker Center (the Police building). Most of the time, it was hidden by smog.

But, the early settlers called it the Valley of the Smokes, as it was just prime for holding in the air.

So, most days, no way we had any visibility in the 50s, 60s, 70s. The beautiful San Gabriel Mountains, were hardly ever visible. I ran track and cross country. A goodly portion of the time after workouts, our lungs burned and it was not from the workouts -- it was from the air pollution.

Still wonder about lung cancer and I never smoked -- although I did inhale a few times in college.

So, while I still think they have a way to go, last time I was in my old hometown, some four years ago, the mountains were visible, Parker Center was visible. I still prefer Washington -- except for Seattle....

 

we drove all the way across country to see disneyland in '63. i don't remember any smog, but my 8 year old eyes were watering from not being able to go back a second day.

 

How much was it for a day pass then?

I bet Peter Pan was just as popular then as it is now.

 

can't remember. how old are your kids? i can't wait to take my grandson to sine work next winter, he'll be almost two.

 

7 and 6 tomorrow .

It’s a fun age to take them there, but don’t do it too early. If they don’t remember it (or age too young to) it’s a steep price to pay .

My in laws took our kids there 5 years ago when my sone was 2 and my daughter was 1. Ended up taking my daughter to the ER for an infection .

At least we stayed in the Grand Californian for that visit.

 

is that the new disneyland hotel?

 

Yes.

The in laws are going on this next trip and we are staying there again. This time the kids are old enough that they will watch them and we’ll go to the Napa Rose for dinner.

When you move out here, you’ll have to check it out.