[JGatti]

Every time I drive into Detroit from the far northern burbs you can clearly tell the air changes. Then I read about the top 10 dirtiest cities in America and many are California, and a few in Arizona. I think to myself. " Man how dirty can these places be to beat Detroit" lol This is not a knock against Detroit don't get me wrong. But when you live in the sticks and can smell the sulfur, the treatment plant etc just driving through I cannot help but wonder how bad it has to be in other places.
I think Phoenix was in the top 5, while your there you would never guess the air is that dirty, Skies are clear, the air in my opinion had no odors. But when you drive out of the valley and look back and see the cloud ya think " eeewww" So even though Michigan may not make the top in some of the good top 10's ( even though we all know it should) I guess we can be thankful we don't make it top ten on some of the bad lists.


(edit) Here is a link to the site, Shows top 20 and we still don't have any in the top 20. Wooooohoooooo Yeah we may get knocked for not having any REAL mountains but maybe that keeps out pollution moving to other states. lol

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mef45...artner=yahoore

[313Weather]

While cities in the SW are as sprawly and car-cultured as Detroit, and I'm sure Detroit has most cities beat in terms of pollution from industry, climate plays a factor too.

Detroit sees a lot of rain, cold, wind and snow (and A LOT of cloudy days, Detroit's the cloudiest city in the country outside the Pacific NW) to wash out the dirtiness in our air where as out in the southwest it's always clear, sunny, hot, and unless there's an offshore/downsloping wind from the desert, things are pretty stagnant, so the dirty air just stays there without anywhere to go.

[animatedmartian]

Some days, I can see some smog towards the horizon over Lake St. Clair, but nothing ever looked as bad as out West. I swear, just thinking of the smog out there makes me want to choke.

[Luzette]

Well I've got a friend in Phoenix who tells me of the dust storms they've had in addition to the extreme heat that has lasted right up until the last few days. I really can't imagine how it must be out there. Dust plus pollution must be horrible. I'm thankful for the northlands when I think of this issue.

[JGatti]

Originally Posted by Luzette

Well I've got a friend in Phoenix who tells me of the dust storms they've had in addition to the extreme heat that has lasted right up until the last few days. I really can't imagine how it must be out there. Dust plus pollution must be horrible. I'm thankful for the northlands when I think of this issue.

The dust storms also bring illness. I think they call it desert fever? Those storms kick up some wicked crap and make people sick from what I understand. I don't think it's too common though, my brother has been there 31 years and has never been sick from it.

[JGatti]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

While cities in the SW are as sprawly and car-cultured as Detroit, and I'm sure Detroit has most cities beat in terms of pollution from industry, climate plays a factor too.

Detroit sees a lot of rain, cold, wind and snow (and A LOT of cloudy days, Detroit's the cloudiest city in the country outside the Pacific NW) to wash out the dirtiness in our air where as out in the southwest it's always clear, sunny, hot, and unless there's an offshore/downsloping wind from the desert, things are pretty stagnant, so the dirty air just stays there without anywhere to go.

I guess I didn't think about how the rain must clean the air some. I wonder if the air is cleaner out there after the monsoons.

[YAZ]

Y'all are refering to "Valley Fever."

There is a type of mold spore that thrives in the desert. It wasn't too prevalent here until the big construction boom started and kicked up all of that nasty stuff. Not sure if big winds will make it worse, but I can tell ya that the haboobs make life nasty when they arrive.

Air pollution advisories abound here in the Valley of the Sun. Rain cleans things up a bit and you'd think that wind would too......Nope.

Lots of particulates.........think sand......

[JGatti]

Originally Posted by YAZ

Y'all are refering to "Valley Fever."

There is a type of mold spore that thrives in the desert. It wasn't too prevalent here until the big construction boom started and kicked up all of that nasty stuff. Not sure if big winds will make it worse, but I can tell ya that the haboobs make life nasty when they arrive.

Air pollution advisories abound here in the Valley of the Sun. Rain cleans things up a bit and you'd think that wind would too......Nope.

Lots of particulates.........think sand......

I was wondering when you were going to drop in. Thanks for the clarification. Haboobs are dust storms? I watched a video of one that looked like something out of an end of the world type movie. Hope all is well for you out there.

[Coldjensens]

One of the things that we like about moving from the LA basin to Detroit metro is the fresh air. there is no smog to speak of here. There is a little odor if you are reight next to the marathon plant. Sewer plants only produce substantial oror when they malfunction, however there will be some odor directly downwind. The sewage plant does not stink up the entire area.

Dotwon has no noticable smog. If you get much out of downtown, the air is very clean and pure.

As for pollution, they have done a marveleous job of cleaning up. The Detroit river is cleaner than it has been since the 1930s. The water si swimmable, fishable and rinkable (by the way pretty much everyone in the Detroit metro dinks Detroit River water unless you have a well). Detroit has the cleanest water of any major municipality.

There is no longer a lot of heavy pollutionindurstry in Detroit and there is not enough population to generate the levels of smog that they see in bigger cities. What smog there is in detroit blows away. Unlike many cities, there is nothing to keep it here.


Further, this is not a dity city when considering just plain trash and dirt. The rain washes away a lot of the grime. Generally we conditions prevent lots of dust. The returnablebottle law keeps things pretty well cleand up. For whatever reason, people here do not dump their cigarette butts all over (as inthe south) ordump trash out their car windows as much as many other places.

Depiste many other warts, dirtiness is not one of Detroit's. It is a pretty clean city.

[Sparrow_temp]

It must be really bad in the LA basin then. l live here in southern NM and our air is considered dirty by the government standards because of the dust storms that can happen but it seems a lot cleaner than Detroit. The rain in MI creates mud and dirties things rather than cleans them. The snow is 10x worse because of the road sanding/salting along with the snow soaking up all of the road dirt/grime. Anything that might normally get picked up stays around in the snow for the entire season and I can't imagine a more dirty looking scenery when the snow melts.

Desert type climates seem a lot cleaner because of the reduced rain/snow. I haven't been in the Detroit area in a while (except the airport) but the words "clean air" don't come to mind. I can generally see a smog layer when the aircraft comes in for a landing at DTW but I don't see the same thing in El Paso. I think your comments are more deserved for an area like Traverse City or Pellston.

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

One of the things that we like about moving from the LA basin to Detroit metro is the fresh air. there is no smog to speak of here. There is a little odor if you are reight next to the marathon plant. Sewer plants only produce substantial oror when they malfunction, however there will be some odor directly downwind. The sewage plant does not stink up the entire area.

Dotwon has no noticable smog. If you get much out of downtown, the air is very clean and pure.

As for pollution, they have done a marveleous job of cleaning up. The Detroit river is cleaner than it has been since the 1930s. The water si swimmable, fishable and rinkable (by the way pretty much everyone in the Detroit metro dinks Detroit River water unless you have a well). Detroit has the cleanest water of any major municipality.

There is no longer a lot of heavy pollutionindurstry in Detroit and there is not enough population to generate the levels of smog that they see in bigger cities. What smog there is in detroit blows away. Unlike many cities, there is nothing to keep it here.


Further, this is not a dity city when considering just plain trash and dirt. The rain washes away a lot of the grime. Generally we conditions prevent lots of dust. The returnablebottle law keeps things pretty well cleand up. For whatever reason, people here do not dump their cigarette butts all over (as inthe south) ordump trash out their car windows as much as many other places.

Depiste many other warts, dirtiness is not one of Detroit's. It is a pretty clean city.