which one has good quality of air Bakersfield or Fresno??? (Los Angeles: smog, job)

[marichelleRN]

just curious which one is better in terms of air and climate...are they the same?

[Zoidberg]

I don't live in either, but they constantly jockey with each other for worst in air quality. According to the American Lung Assoc., Bakersfield got #4 worst, and Fresno/Madera got #3 worst. LA is a predictable #2, and Pittsburgh made it up to #1 this time.

I think you can probably consider them the same.

Moving to those places for air quality is like moving to Calcutta for the mild summers, North Korea for the high degree of freedom, Singapore for the wide open spaces, or Detroit to find a job.

[FresnoFacts]

In terms of climate,
Fresno averages 35 days a year over 100 degrees
Bakersfield averages 38 days a year over 100 degrees
Phoenix averages 89 days a year over 10 degrees

Zoidberg is only looking at particulates, not ozone (smog). For smog the worse 10 are:
1) Los Angeles, California
2) Bakersfield, California
3) Visalia/Porterville, California
4) Houston, Texas
5) Fresno/Madera, California
6) Sacramento, California
7) Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
8) New York City/Newark, New Jersey
9) Baltimore, Maryland./Washington, DC
10) Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Since Zoidberg brought up the Lung Association, as I posted in another thread, they commended Fresno for its smog reduction in the last 10 years. Bakersfield has stayed pretty consistent.
"Fresno, California, for example, experienced a remarkable decline in the number of high ozone days since its peak in 2001-2003."

Trend chart of days of unhealthy air from the American Lung Assoc.
Bakersfield


Fresno

[rkb0305]

Both have basically the same climate and air quality. Really bad air (slightly worse in Bakersfield), foggy winters, hot dry summers. I don't think I'd use these criteria to choose between the 2 because they are basically the same. And if you are worried specifically about air quality, I would not move to either of these places. go to airnow.gov and click on air compare.