Bad air quality - even in autumn?! - in Fresno/Clovis (Bell: allergies, live)

[FreedomBelle]

So does anyone know why the air quality is still so bad in Fresno/Clovis this last full week of October? There are air quality alerts for *both* high levels of ozone and small particulates. I thought the sightly cooler weather would have helped (and that the winds would have started to move some of the bad air), but apparently not and I'd like to better understand why. Thanks!

[BeauCharles]

High pressure dome over the state = stagnant air (in any season).

[FreedomBelle]

Originally Posted by BeauCharles

High pressure dome over the state = stagnant air (in any season).

What are the sources of the small particulate pollution now? This type of pollution seemed to abate for a while, but has been high most days for a week. Fire? Firewood? Blowing dust? Again, just trying to understand it.

[S.S. Lazio]

Almond harvest. Everyone is going to almonds now and the harvest absolutely 'effs' the air up.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Just drove through Yolo County last week and the rice fields are being disked and burned. Lots of smoke and soil in the air. I about gagged going through that area. I would guess it's agricultural work where you are, too.

[FreedomBelle]

Guess that makes sense. I've lived in places with large-scale farming (e.g. central Illinois), and you could tell when the corn was being harvested, for example, if you had allergies. But the climate and topography was different there, so the air quality didn't become unhealthy in the same ways from farm equipment (e.g. tractors, trucks) and working the soil, etc.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by FreedomBelle

Guess that makes sense. I've lived in places with large-scale farming (e.g. central Illinois), and you could tell when the corn was being harvested, for example, if you had allergies. But the climate and topography was different there, so the air quality didn't become unhealthy in the same ways from farm equipment (e.g. tractors, trucks) and working the soil, etc.

Yeah, it sits in the valley and can be god-awful.

[Des-Lab]

+1 on what the OP said. It's pretty gnarly this year. I didn't realize just how thick the layer of dust, crud, and soot can get until I took a drive one day up to Kings Canyon. As you go up the road and after you pass about 5000 feet, you can look back towards the Valley and almost looks like you are looking at the top of a cloud layer the way you might in an airplane. Except that....it ain't cloud cover.

Of course being in a landlocked valley and the prevailing winds, it has nowhere to go and seems to get worse the further south you go. This is probably why Arvin, the southernmost town in the Valley also has the dubious distinction of having the worst air in the nation. You can also see this as you travel up or down the Grapevine entering or leaving the Valley.

Whatever happened to an idea I remember hearing about many years ago? Something about blasting away a chunk of the Tehachapi Mountains to clear a path to the Mojave Desert so that the wind could blow all that nastiness out into the [still largely] unpopulated desert?

Would be an impossible pipe dream now just between the bureaucratic environmental red tape and/or cost. Too bad it wasn't done then. The Valley would probably be a much nicer place to be.

I wouldn't look for any of this to improve anytime soon. Not as long as A) agriculture remains the dominant industry. That means dust, tractor soot, and trucks, and B) the 5 and 99 freeways are used by MILLIONS of medium and long distance truckers to "just pass through".

(as an aside, so many trucks traverse those two roads that if just a $10 toll was imposed on JUST THE TRUCKERS at the Grapevine, our State budget woes would be cured with money leftover inside a couple of years...assuming of course the money was spent paying down bills).

[FreedomBelle]

So we're in a string bad air alert days, including a period of Code Red (unhealthy for all) for small particulate matter yesterday and my phone just beeped a "Code Purple" (Very unhealthy - sensitive groups stay inside, others avoid prolonged exertion ) Is this still agriculture, or is it wood-burning in mountains that drifts into the Valley?

[BeauCharles]

I just checked the forcast with the San Joaquin Vally APCD website - its been around 95-124 for air pollution in Fresno this past week. Over 100 is unhealthy for sensitive groups, under is "moderate". Nothing close to "purple" or even red. Are you sure its as bad as what you think?