Pollution really that bad? (Boise: live, manufacturing, air pollution)

[sillygal]

I am thinking about coming out there soon on vacation and take a look around, is the air pollution really that bad? and how come they aren't doing anything about it?

[huntman58]

Most of it is in the winter. They call it an inversion. Some days the city is colder and you do not see the sun for days from all the trapped air. Mostly wood smoke from stoves and things. Also car smog added in. in the summer not much can be done about it when the forest fires happen but when they do again it gets trapped in the valley. I felt most of the winter and during the fires it was as bad as the L A area of calif and that was a few years ago now. Being I also have breathing trouble it was a lot more stressful on me then any were I have lived before

[Pineboy]

There are inversions in Boise in the winter because of the mountains which trap the air. At first it starts as fog then the air gets dirty until a storm blows in and clears the air. I can only think of inversions lasting for a week or so and only happen a few times each winter. Summer has inversions when there are bad forest fires nearby, but it does not happen every summer. Most of the time the sky is blue and at night the starts are bright. Boise's air is by far cleaner than most other large west cities.
Any city against mountains has this problem--look at Denver, Salt Lake, etc.
Boise has pretty clean air besides the inversions. There are not very many polluting, manufacturing plants in the metro which help keep the air clean.
Just watch out for the few weeks each year when it does happen.