What are AQI and PM2.5? Explaining air pollution measurements that are spiking from wildfire smoke
As wildfire smoke blankets the East Coast, Air Quality Index and PM2.5 numbers are everywhere. Here’s what they mean.
As smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed parts of the East Coast in an eerie, orange haze this week, residents in places from Vermont to South Carolina, and from Detroit to New York City, were inundated with numbers to quantify the pollution: Air Quality Index measurements that reached into the “hazardous” level of more than 300, and PM2.5 concentrations that, in New York City, topped 800. But what do those numbers mean?
Read Full Story