Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think I live in the place with the worst air quality in the US, Salt Lake City.
It is terrible living through this every winter with smog so thick you can taste it, I am ready to move with the family and need somewhere with good air.
The Bay Area has terrific air quality...when it's windy and/or foggy. Otherwise after 2 consecutive days of clear skies, the 3rd day is when it starts getting real hazy and only gets worse until the winds pick up and blows our dirty air out to the Central Valley--sorry to them.
I used to think Seattle had excellent air quality, and for the most part it still does, but I can’t really put the “excellent” label on it with the frequency and severity of wildfire smoke in recent years. It doesn’t just get bad, it gets extremely bad. It may be only during certain times of the year but when it happens it’s quite unpleasant and hazardous. I don’t really think any western city is immune.
Seattle is both. Excellent air quality (AQI < 10) most of the year until late August, then you get the California/Oregon smoke for 2 weeks, with terrible China-level air quality (AQI > 200) during that time.
Check out the Myrtle Beach-Conway-Florence SC area which is ranked #1 for least ozone issues and 24 hour particulate pollution. Carolina Forest in Conway is a great area for families and good schools including Coastal Carolina University.
Best:
I think it’s a draw between most coastal cities. Air coming off the ocean is normally very clean.
Worst:
Port Arthur, TX or maybe eastern Houston
The Gulf and SE US coast, in general, has the cleanest air quality in the country. Predominant oceanic flow for much of the year, and then low-lying inland for miles. Frequent thunderstorms during the heat of summer that drench the land and further clear the air. And also the low-latitude location, which spares the region from the brunt jet-stream and the environmental factors that ride its currents (i.e. Western US wildfire smoke, haze, aerosols, etc).
Even with those industrial areas of SE Texas, the rankings that score them badly focus solely on the extremes - their average air quality is still excellent compared to many other areas of the county. Flat, low-latitude land with summer storms and predominant SE flow from the Gulf. https://theconversation.com/the-para...tandards-59300
Depends on what kind of pollution you're trying to avoid.
Taking a look at some of Windy's live maps, I can see that the western half of the US has a lot less NO2 on average, but by and large it looks to be a function of population (and probably traffic). At the moment of my posting, I'd peg New Mexico as being the cleanest in this regard, specifically around Santa Fe. Which isn't a large city overall, but it's large by the standards of where I live.
PM2.5 also looks to be better in the west. Seattle, the Bay Area and Minneapolis look to be among the best large cities in this metric. Santa Fe again looks phenomenal.
Ozone, on the other hand, looks to peak around Seattle and is much lower in the eastern US.
Sulfur dioxide appears lowest around Portland and Seattle.
Seattle appears to win in terms of CO concentration, if you don't count Santa Fe.
~
Based on a snapshot from December 11th, I'd say Washington and New Mexico look to be the winners, unless you're trying to avoid ozone, in which case you might try west Texas, the more remote parts of the Great Lakes region, or northern New England.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
