Wow! What happened in Taipei?
The air pollution index is double that even of the south.
142 PSI average in the north and 68 in the south.
Tomorrow’s forecast 115 north /65 south.
210.69.101.141/emce/default.aspx … AreaHourly
Tomb sweeping day burning ghost paper feast?
O3 ozone
Inversion. Happens sometimes. Usually by evening the air quality has improved, especially if the main culprit is O3.
I notice some of the areas tag the PSI, 03 and others, PM.
Why is that?
No wonder I’ve had trouble breathing today, it is just nasty out there… Can we all go back to riding bicycles for a while?
[quote=“tw1983”]I notice some of the areas tag the PSI, 03 and others, PM.
Why is that?[/quote]
They record the highest level of pollutants, so if O3 is worse they mark that; if PM10 particles, then that.
But what you also have to look at is that they record the average levels for three stations. Shijih has a O3 rating of 139ppb but Keelung is only 59 (under 50 for a 24 hour period is considered safe). So one area is really bad and the other only mildly.
Today the charts are all over the place. O3 was bad out here in Muzha during the afternoon but now the air is back down to normal smelling levels.
O3 usually peaks around noon and breaks up during the afternoon.
ok, so it’s all still pollution. I thought one was more favorable than the other or something.
Still like 142 PSI at 21:00, hope it gets better soon. Must be pretty uncomfortable with 80% humidity on top of that.
It’s no secret that Hong Kong is suffering from pollution pouring out of China. (The Pearl River Delta is like China’s giant anus…) I wonder if we will soon find ourselves more and more choked by the Glorious Pollution Machine - Painland China… Not that Taiwan will be able to much about it. (Hell, ask the Thais how they feel about China pinching off the Mekong to a trickle…)
Actually a lot of our O3 problem does come from China.
Ok, looks like some fresher air up there now.
5:00 a.m. and the PSI is 72. Most of the rest of the island is 50 PSI.
Curious to see how this changes throughout the day around the island.
[quote=“tw1983”]Ok, looks like some fresher air up there now.
5:00 a.m. and the PSI is 72. Most of the rest of the island is 50 PSI.
Curious to see how this changes throughout the day around the island.[/quote]
So checking it 10 hours later…
Interesting the pollution levels have actually dropped in the past 10 hours!
But strangely, Taipei is still highest.
[quote=“tw1983”][quote=“tw1983”]Ok, looks like some fresher air up there now.
5:00 a.m. and the PSI is 72. Most of the rest of the island is 50 PSI.
Curious to see how this changes throughout the day around the island.[/quote]
So checking it 10 hours later…
Interesting the pollution levels have actually dropped in the past 10 hours!
But strangely, Taipei is still highest.[/quote]
We’ve had a pretty breezy day so it’s not surprising levels have dropped.
a) Seoul
b) Hong Kong / Shenzhen / Guangzhou
c) Shanghai
d) Bangkok
e) Ho Chi Minh City
Can you do it? Thanks for any thoughts!
I have been to the five listed cities, but not Taipei, so I’m curious as to what I can expect, and since I can’t pull up / make sense of the statistics I thought comparison was the best way to get an idea. 
I haven’t been to all of those cities, but I would say the air quality here is not as bad as Hong Kong, and it’s way better than Bangkok. Thailand’s air can be horrendous, especially during the dry season when farmers burn their crops.
The air here is not perfect by any means, but it’s much better than I expected.
A few years ago I did some comparisons and Taipei’s air is on par with London and Los Angeles most of the time. When we get sand storms in the spring it is much much worse with the pm10 particle levels becoming very high. But these are only a few days a year. Oddly enough cities like Sydney and Wellington can have much higher pm10 particle counts in winter because everyone has a wood fireplace going. But you don’t think of the smell of wood burning to be pollution, though it is.
As I’ve written many times, air pollution in Taipei is 98% car exhaust. Get away from traffic and the air is good. It’s why many of us live in the suburbs near the mountains. That said, summer ozone levels can be pretty bad from 11am-4pm. But Taipei is a rainy city so pollutants are quickly washed out of the air.
Most of the other cities you mentioned are affected by coal plants and factories so the air quality is bad day and night and in all locations.
I would put it at the same as HK myself. Taipei doesn’t have much wind so it can get humid and stuff too. It’s way better than Bangkok.
I think Hong Kong’s gotten a lot worse over the past decade, whereas Taipei’s gotten better. The past few times I’ve been to Hong Kong I’ve been horrified by the air pollution, and that didn’t use to be the case.
Can’t speak to Seoul, but Taipei seems broadly better than any of the other cities.
Note that Taipei is usually a lot less polluted than Kaohsiung or Tainan; I see far more blue-sky days here than I did in Tainan, even if there are also many more rainy days. (Tainan has dry stretches for months in the winter, which is nice, but the sky is seldom… blue.)
I expected it to be really bad here but it hasn’t been bad at all since August. It’s not Seattle-fresh, but it’s not breathable mud either. Agreed on the exhaust… it’s fairly intense as a pedestrian along a major road at rush hour…
[quote=“Epiphanie”]a) Seoul
b) Hong Kong / Shenzhen / Guangzhou
c) Shanghai
d) Bangkok
e) Ho Chi Minh City
Can you do it? Thanks for any thoughts!
I have been to the five listed cities, but not Taipei, so I’m curious as to what I can expect, and since I can’t pull up / make sense of the statistics I thought comparison was the best way to get an idea.
[/quote]
I’ve been to all the above.
Taipei is better than all of them.
Seoul (most similar)
HK/Guangzhou/Shenzhen (drop HK and this group falls to the bottom like a rock)
HCMC (can be the worst in the wrong spots)
Shanghai (gross most of the time)
Bangkok (central areas are putrid)