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We call it "inversion" in the winter and "haze" or "smoke" in the summer.
It's not great; it's not horrible. It's not as bad as LA or SLC, or even the Bay Area (different sort of event), but because of the geography, it is noticeable.
I hadn't seen that article before, but I agree, this conversation has been had MANY times on this forum. Search for inversion, and you'll find a myriad of conversations.
I'd never heard of the Caldwell Express. I do find it sad how few public transportation options we have. Most of the time, when I see a city bus, it is empty, or nearly empty. And cabs are rare. Everyone drives their own car (or bikes, I do see a lot of bikes...go cyclists).
Boise IS still VERY clean. By far the cleanest city I've ever been to of any decent size. Leaps and bounds cleaner than most. We just have air problems a few weeks every year in the summers and winters.
Small price to pay for all the other wonderful things about living here.
I haven't kept up on Canyon county policies. Do they require emission testing now? I know for many years, every time I saw a vehicle belching out black smoke, it had 2C plates. But that seems to have gotten quite a bit better, so I suspect they require testing now.
I'm from Arizona Phoenix area so I know smog! Boise has none. Inversion is not as bad as locals here make it out to be. Inversions are white bright days. There is no dark brown ucky smog clouds like in LA and Phoenix. People burn leaves here and trash. In Phoenix the cops would be called on you!
I'm from Arizona Phoenix area so I know smog! Boise has none. Inversion is not as bad as locals here make it out to be. Inversions are white bright days. There is no dark brown ucky smog clouds like in LA and Phoenix. People burn leaves here and trash. In Phoenix the cops would be called on you!
In some ways, the problem can be worse here. In most big cities, the smog is a cloud that hangs OVER the city. In Boise, the dirty air is trapped in the valley, so instead of hanging overhead, it is all down in the city, where we all can breathe it in. And the longer the inversion lasts, the worse it gets, because the dirty air just sticks around, getting more and more dirty.
The summer haze is ugly and brown when there are forest fires nearby.
If you don't have breathing problems, it isn't that big a deal. But for those with asthma or other breathing issue, it can get pretty bad some days.
If you drive up to the top of Bogus Basin and look out over the Valley you'll see it. Otherwise, unless there is an inversion you don't really notice much.
We call it "inversion" in the winter and "haze" or "smoke" in the summer.
It's not great; it's not horrible. It's not as bad as LA or SLC, or even the Bay Area (different sort of event), but because of the geography, it is noticeable.
I'm not in Idaho, at least not yet, but these are really two different things everywhere else.
Smog is the smoke and auto emissions that get trapped in the air; inversion is the process that keeps smog at ground level and prevents it from floating away into the atmosphere. If it weren't for smog, inversions would have completely clean and fresh smelling air even after a week of sitting on the land.
I imagine that if Tesla cars (and the Chevy Volt, etc.) ever take over the world, clean-air inversions won't be seen as a negative by anyone. It also would help for Idaho to ban the open burning of trash, etc., as they have done in some other places like Arizona.
I'm not in Idaho, at least not yet, but these are really two different things everywhere else.
Boise people don't say smog. Ever. People are downright defensive about it. I was there last summer and we had some low air quality days and I said, "Pretty smoggy today." My mom angrily snapped at me, "It is smoke! From Oregon and California!!!" haha
If it weren't for smog, inversions would have completely clean and fresh smelling air even after a week of sitting on the land.
And in Boise, we wouldn't have winter smog if it wasn't for the inversions. We don't get smog in one day. It takes days or weeks of the air not being able to escape to build up to "smog" levels".
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Has it gotten better or worse 
