Longmont hasn’t seen this much haze since Bearded Brewer released their IPA menu.
Over the weekend, Longmont’s air quality plummeted as smoke from wildfires in western Colorado and Utah wafted northeast across Longmont. Fine particle pollution reached a peak early Sunday morning when Longmont registered an Air Quality Index of 161, per data from AirNow. For the unfamiliar, that’s bad:
Longmont’s AQI is typically well below 50.
Last night, Jakarta, Indonesia held an AQI of 164 — the worst in the world.
The good news: Longmont’s air quality didn’t stay that way for long. The AQI dipped back below 100 by 11 a.m. Sunday, and hovered between 70 - 90 the rest of the day. Plus, it yielded a wave of pretty cool pictures of the moon.
Zooming out:
This event is a stark reminder of an ominous trend in Colorado. The American Lung Association’s latest air quality report card painted a murky picture for some parts of the state.
However, it’s worth noting that both Colorado Springs and Grand Junction were ranked among the cleanest cities nationally.
This incident also comes on the heels of an encouraging stretch of rainfall in Longmont. The city clocked more than an inch of rain in just two days last week as it made a spirited fight to catch up to Longmont’s historical June average. But with a dry week forecasted, it appears as though mother nature will fall short.
Smoky conditions are projected to linger in Longmont through at least Tuesday. For a look at an 18-hour smoke forecast, click here.