Q: The air quality in Atlanta this summer so far has been better than the past several years. What can account for this change?
— Darby Christopher, Dunwoody
A: One of the main reasons is the difference in weather patterns this summer. The area during July and August typically gets a Bermuda high, which creates hot, stagnant air conditions, said Susan Zimmer-Dauphinee, program manager of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s ambient air monitoring program.
“It hasn’t really developed this year, so we haven’t had those hot, stagnant air conditions that we normally would have had,” she said. “We’re having more rain here than what we’ve had in the past few years, too.”
Bill Murphey, the EPD’s chief meteorologist, said dry and stagnant conditions and low, calm winds contribute to high ozone levels.
“This summer, we’ve had moist and unstable conditions a lot, especially in the afternoon. Usually when you have a lot of moisture and instability, that’s hard to produce a lot of ozone in those conditions.”
Zimmer-Dauphinee said measures to help control the emissions that make ozone, such as ensuring the supply of low sulfur gasoline and the installation of air quality control equipment at power plants, are other factors that have resulted in what appears to be lower ozone conditions.
Lori Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or e-mail q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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