AccuWeather's air quality expert explains what causes air quality to drop during a heat wave.
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00:00We often think, and rightfully so, about poor air quality.
00:04We get into these situations where strong high pressure really boosts our temperature,
00:09but it also begins to trap pollutants near the ground.
00:12So to speak a little bit more about that with us is AccuWeather meteorologist
00:17and expert on air quality as well, Alan Ruppert.
00:20Alan, thanks for joining us today here on the network.
00:23Sure, no problem, Jeff.
00:24Well, Alan, I know you've looked at things like air quality for quite some time here.
00:28We often look to you for guidance on that.
00:30So what is it about the heat that, even in addition to sinking air,
00:35just trapping pollutants, what about the heat leads to poor air quality?
00:39Really, as the heat builds up and it really doesn't have much of an air flow
00:43around this high pressure center with all the sinking air, it really makes things really bad.
00:48And thankfully now we're early in the season,
00:51so we did recently have some different air come into the area.
00:55But you can see here it will start to increase in pollution levels here,
01:00really towards the middle and end of the week just with things not moving much
01:04and the heat just continuing to build.
01:07A lot of this is going to be affecting people that are mainly sensitive to the pollution levels,
01:13those that have breathing and lung issues,
01:16but most other people shouldn't have too much of an issue with this.
01:20This is good news.
01:21I've noticed on our product here on AccuWeather.com
01:24we've seen a big bubble over St. Louis
01:26where the air quality has been especially poor over the past couple of days.
01:30And we have another graphic to talk about some of the air quality.
01:32But there you can see the St. Louis metro in western parts of Illinois,
01:35kind of a hot spot there with some of that stagnant air.
01:39And Al, I know that a lot of the time people are encouraged to,
01:44maybe discouraged from mowing in the hottest part of the day
01:48because of extra emissions from their gas-powered mowers.
01:52What about the heat helps to facilitate some of these chemical reactions?
01:56What's the concern?
01:58The heat just builds up and it helps to produce ozone.
02:02That's the biggest pollutant.
02:03There's carbon dioxide.
02:04There's a lot of other pollutants that go into things, methane.
02:07A lot of those are produced by cars or transportation or even just power production.
02:14That produces some of these pollutants.
02:16But a lot of this is just until the air clears out,
02:21it's really going to be a problem.
02:23But it's worse, especially later in the day, afternoon, early evening hours, best in the morning.
02:29And Al, I know that you mentioned that for most people we won't have too many issues.
02:32But if you do happen to have a respiratory illness, what would you recommend over the next few days?
02:37Definitely stay inside, try and get out of the heat of the day if at all possible,
02:42and stay in in the afternoon.
02:47Okay, good stuff.
02:48Al, we appreciate your insight as always.
02:50I'm AccuWeather meteorologist and air quality expert Alan Reppert.
02:53Thanks again, Al.
02:54Thank you.
02:55All right, good stuff.