Yes, but when you look out of the window it looks much much worse than about 100 which is very strange. When I looked up the figures myself earlier this morning, I was expecting to see 250. So maybe a large part of this actually is fog
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Cool page but a lot of these stations don’t look like they’re reliable.
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Yes it lowers the reading. On some styles of machines but most have tables that correct for humidity. The reason is smaller particles are enveloped in the water particles.
It’s a mix of the boxes and the official stations. It’s good background data anyway. Is today better or worse than yesterday…
Having reliable very accurate detectors would be fantastic.
Agree - I’ve been confused by the numbers a few times over the past week. The numbers tell me “Eh, OK, I can go for a ride”. The view out the window tells me “No friggin’ way.”
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I concur. I got home from a ride yesterday and checked to see if it matched what I experienced outside and it didn’t match up. It’s good for a ballpark maybe?
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This past weekend all of Pingdong was covered in smoke from all the tomb sweepers burning anything and everything including. Fire trucks were everywhere, at one point one road was blocked due to a fire. Next weekend is going to be terrible, but at least all the dried grass and shrub went up in flames during the past few days.
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Yesterday in Xinyi, the skyline was foggy with a cool breeze in the air. I assumed it was just fog, but that almost never happens in Taipei. I checked PM2.5 and it was 70-80. So confused.
If PM2.5 is over 90-100+, but with cool temps, I just choose to take it easy and go out for a spin. No hard efforts. If I can feel the pollution when I’m sitting in the office breathing, I know to just take a day off.
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Bit all over the place as people noted here, but I like the idea of a civilian network. Power to the people.
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I went from Kenting to Kaohsiung on Tue. And as soon as I left the Hengchun peninsula, the blue sky disappeared and was substituted by grey pollution. So sad😪
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Alright. What is that white air outside?
Answer: shit
But not only. It is true that these days the humidity level is super high. You can smell and feel it:
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Anyone know where I can find air filters ? not air purifiers but actual sheet filters like AC | HVAC filters ? Would appreciate if you let me know the stores that sell HEPA ones
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Yeah, this confuses me as well.
I look outside my window and I can’t see the mountains that are only ten minutes away, but the air quality sites say things are only moderate.
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So this could be an indication that it is more fog than smog
Pretty horrible air in Gaoxiong today. My kid has a soccer tournament in Pingdong, so hopefully it’s not as bad there.
Yep, if the AQI readings show normal air quality, then it’s fog. Right now is the fog season. When the warm air coming in from the south meets the cold temperatures over the seawater, you get fog, which is heavier than the air and tends to settle near the ground. You can see it clearly if you head up a coastal mountain that’s higher than 1,000 meters.
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It’s not fog.
Common sense will tell us that it’s smoke and pollution from Qing Ming jie, and it happens every Qing Ming jie pretty much (burning the grass off the weeds off the graves, bai Bai, , preparing fields, pollution from increased traffic ).
Why the reading seems lower than one thinks they should be…Is a very interesting question . But fog…Nah I don’t buy it .
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Change smog for fog and it makes more sense.
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Well the AQI all week has been in the 80-140 range, but the skies have looked to me more like 150+. So I’ve been guessing there’s added fog making the smog look even worse.
Hope this crap dispels soon. For me at least, this is worse than days of cloudy drizzle or the searing summer heat.
From when this was more typical of Taipei spring, five or six years back: does anyone remember when it goes away?
