2024 Air Quality Trends Show Notable Decline in High Risk Ratings Despite Wildfire Smoke and Other Seasonal Factors

Heartland Air Monitoring Partnership (HAMP), the organization that monitors the air local residents breathe, has released its 2024 Annual Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) monitoring results, detailing air quality data collected at seven of HAMP’s continuous monitoring stations throughout the region. The 2024 report indicates that most of the year saw low to moderate AQHI levels, with occasional high or very high-risk periods primarily associated with wildfire smoke events and wintertime inversions.

2024 saw a notable decrease (996 total) in exceedances compared to 2023 (2,125 total), largely due to fewer wildfire smoke-related events. The most notable air quality events were related to wildfire smoke, particularly from May through September.

Read more about this report here.

 

Reflecting on 25 Years of Air Quality Monitoring – By and For the Community

Heartland Air Monitoring Partnership celebrates 25 years of providing trusted air quality data in Alberta’s Heartland this year. We started as a grassroots effort and grew to a multi-stakeholder regional monitoring network, with representation from industry, all levels of government, and the public. This collaboration enables us to accomplish goals that any one sector alone would have great difficulty doing.

We are passionate about providing air quality information to anyone who wants access to it, building up our education and outreach over the past 25 years through workshops, community events, a school program and social media presence.

Read more about the impact of community-led air monitoring here.

 

What Causes Higher Risk Air Quality Ratings in Winter?

Fortunately, air quality health ratings in the Heartland are low risk most of the time.

But there are two conditions that typically lead to the poorest air quality days in our region (and much of the prairies). One is wildfire smoke. And the other is a natural phenomenon called a temperature inversion – which tends to materialize when the Polar Vortex expands and sends a gush of cold air southward.

Learn how winter conditions impact air quality and what you can do to stay informed here.

 

Assessing Longer-Term Air Quality Trends in the Heartland

We show how five key substances affect air quality in the Heartland Airshed over time and how those trends compare to other locations in Alberta, Canada and around the world.

Read the full story here.