The top is what the view normally looks like. The bottom is the current view of #Denver with all the smoke covering the city. pic.twitter.com/PPsJ1LwxAW
— Nick Ota-Wang, MA | He/Him/His 🏳️🌈 🎻 🐘 🐶 📖 (@NickOtaWang) August 8, 2021
The air quality in Denver, CO was the worst of any major city in the world on Saturday, as smoke from the Californian wildfires blanketed the city.
According to global pollution monitoring site IQAir, residents were advised to wear a mask outdoors, avoid exercise, close windows, and turn on air purifiers when an air quality reading of 167 was recorded.
Pollution levels were even worse by Sunday morning when a 171 air quality reading was recorded. Weather apps on smartphones described the conditions as ‘smoke.’
The current weather is Denver is “smoke”.
This is fine 😳🔥 pic.twitter.com/xRhKx6i4U9
— Hannah Hathaway (@HathawayPhD) August 8, 2021
At the same time, Salt Lake City was the fifth most polluted major city in the world.
The smoke was from the Dixie wildfire, currently the second-largest wildfire in California’s history.
The smoke is so thick you can see gravity waves on visible satellite this evening. These gravity waves are produced by strong winds moving over the mountains and typically show up on different satellite channels like water vapor. #COwx pic.twitter.com/dBDuxpUPhA
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) August 8, 2021
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Correction: Major City…
I see this mistake a lot… you mean worst AQ for a Major City… lots of other places around the US have AQI much higher than that….