Stagnant weather system to blame for poor air quality in Edmonton

Stagnant weather conditions are causing poor air quality in the Edmonton area, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“It’s due to the atmosphere sort of trapping the pollutants that are out there. At this time of the year, some of the admitters are a little bit elevated, a little bit stronger than what we would normally see in the summer, you know traffic volumes, people heating their homes, things like that,” says Jesse Wagar, a meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“Anything that is emitting any sort of pollutant will unfortunately under these conditions become trapped and lead to poor air quality.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a special air quality statement for the Edmonton area on Monday saying it was expected to be at its worst Monday evening and overnight into Tuesday, but Wagar says the poor air quality isn’t expected to go away anytime soon.

“Surface-level winds are very weak. We do need a system to push this stuff out, and sort of flush the lower levels of the atmosphere,” she says. “It’s just sort of settling, there’s not a lot of dynamics to it right now. So we do need a system to come through and unfortunately, it’s not looking like we are going to see that anytime this week. We are hopeful we will see something during the weekend or even into next week.”

People may experience symptoms such as increased coughing, throat irritation, headaches or shortness of breath due to the poor air quality.

“People that suffer from asthma often see an increase in their symptoms during events like this. Elderly and children are also at risk for seeing negative effects due to poor air quality. Even the general public, we have seen reports of sort of red scratchy eyes, irritated throat, so if you are experiencing any of these, the best thing is to remove yourself from being outside,” says Wagar.