It rained this morning.
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In Taipei City, it was grim in the morning, but after the wind shifted it was brilliant in the afternoon.
As the week goes forward, expect more shifts…
Guy
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Elsewhere, I guess, but not in Danshui. Anyway, it was a welcome surprise: a gloomy morning, with pollution forecast to get worse, but things got a lot better instead.
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I find PM2.5, PM 2.5 AQI and AQI confusing. I used to use this site:
It’s currently reading a PM2.5 AQI of 46. Then I found this site:
It lists the AQI at 45 and the PM2.5 at 11 µg/m³. So are AQI and PM2.5 AQI the same thing or does AQI include other pollutants too?
One thing to note though, I think a lot of people see the PM 2.5 AQI and confuse it with the µg/m³. So the real levels of PM2.5 aren’t as bad as many think.
The PM2.5 figure is just a subset of the AQI, which is also made up of the PM10, O3, NO2, SO2 and CO concentrations. As for PM 2.5 AQI, I think that’s just to indicate that it’s using the AQI system, as opposed to the old PSI system.
Air quality is rarely bad in Taipei.
Just a tad late for this year’s Pride Parade! : D
Guy
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Recent activity at Japan’'s Nishinoshima volcano has been affecting the air along Taiwan’s East Coast. Over these past few weeks, Hualien and Taitung have seen days of below-average air quality. In dry weather, PM 2.5 has been recorded at nearly three times the usual level.
Nishinoshima volcano is located more than 2,000 kilometers northeast of Taiwan. Under the influence of easterly winds, the volcanic ash has been swept toward Northern Taiwan, the East Coast, and the Hengchun region. Forecasters say the effects will only start to diminish on Friday, when the easterly trade winds are expected to shift. Until then, it’s best to wear a face mask if you’re outdoors in affected areas.
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Explains the air. It was noticeable poor last Thursday, smog draped over the mountains so thick that it looked like rain-clouds.
I think I can get by without a mask though - it’s not that bad.
Hopefully the power plant improvements and new MRT make real difference to Taichung’s air quality. It has the potential to be a very nice city to live in if the air was better.
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It’s everyone driving cars in order to BBQ
Crazy plume of cancer in 淡水 right now, making its way down south. Visibility dropped to like 1km all of a sudden.
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And around the coast to the north too. Gorgeous morning in Danshui; I was cycling up Yangmingshan, and saw haze out to sea. By the time I got to the top, Danshui below had disappeared in the smog. Went down to Jinshan, all lovely, but I hit that haze quickly after I headed north out of Jinshan, and had a really grimy ride back along a hazy yucky coast. Fugu Cape (sp?) AQI was 37 at 1pm, 124 at 2pm, and 152 at 3pm. I was there around 2:30pm I guess? Blech. For reference, I could barely make out the hills of Yangmingshan at the time. Way over my usual air quality limits for when I choose to ride, but I didn’t expect that to hit!
I hope this blows away as quickly as it blew in. It had been a gorgeous week until this afternoon.
There was a report on Yunlin yesterday. AQi of 158.
It seems that pig farms are also a big part of the problem there. But surely Mailiao is the major cause.
A great pity because Yunlin is kind of the heart of minnan culture in Taiwan but they abused their heritage and history and environment.
They sure did. Yilan stood up and said NO to the Formosa Plastics development back in the day, and Yunlin jumped at the prospect of riches and took it on in Mailiao.
Hands up anyone who now thinks Yunlin is a better place to be than Yilan? Then again Yilan has always marched to a different drum than other Han settler parts of Taiwan…
Guy