Month: March 2023

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a Special Air Quality Statement in effect for:

• Co. of Minburn near Vegreville Inland and Warwick
• Co. of Two Hills near Willingdon and Hairy Hill
• Elk Island Nat. Park
• Fort Saskatchewan and Nrn Strathcona Co.
• Lamont Co. near Andrew and Wostok
• Lamont Co. near Bruderheim Lamont and Peno Creek
• Lamont Co. near Mundare Chipman and Ukrainian Village
• Smoky Lake Co. near Smoky Lake and Waskatenau
• Sturgeon Co. near Bon Accord Gibbons and Namao
• Sturgeon Co. near Redwater
• Thorhild Co. near Thorhild Opal and Radway

From the statement: “A stagnant weather pattern is causing pollutants to build up near the surface, leading to poor air quality. The air quality will likely be worse during the afternoon and evening hours. The poor air quality may persist for most of the week.”

Click here for more details.

You can receive updates and other air monitoring news and tips by following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Fort Air Partnership (FAP), the organization that monitors the air local residents breathe, released 2022 Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) results today. The Government of Alberta calculates the AQHI using data collected at seven of FAP’s air monitoring stations.

2022 air monitoring results

The number of hours of air monitoring in 2022 was 55,611 hours. Of these hours, 94.9% were low-risk AQHI, and 4.8% were moderate-risk AQHI. 

Just over 0.2% of the hours monitored were high or very high-risk AQHI. Wildfire smoke most frequently contributed to high-risk and very high-risk Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) ratings measured at Fort Air Partnership’s monitoring stations in 2022. Meteorological conditions leading to temperature inversions were the second largest contributor to high or very high-risk AQHI.

Low-risk AQHI relatively static over the past five years

As illustrated in the chart below, low-risk AQHI ratings in the FAP Airshed remain relatively static since 2019. The uptick in high and very-high-risk AQHI in 2021 was mainly due to wildfire smoke.

Air quality monitoring statistics

For all of the details and charts on 2022 air monitoring data, please see the 2022 air quality monitoring report. This report includes details on exceedances since 2018.