News & Notices

We typically don’t see wildfire smoke until mid-August, but wildfires began peppering the landscape in our region early. Compounding the start to fire season this year is a severe drought and record heat. Smoke from fires created unhealthy air in late July and early August. If you were caught off guard, you likely weren’t the…

Monday, August 2, 2021 –Saturday, July 31, 2021 and Sunday, August 1, 2021’s wildfire smoke caused exceedances of the 24-hour, health-based standard for fine particles (PM2.5) for the first time this year. Based on current smoke forecast models, air quality will likely continue to be unhealthy over the next few days, prompting the National Weather…

Spokane Clean Air uses seven air quality monitoring locations throughout Spokane County to determine the air quality for our region’s airshed. Thisnetwork of air quality monitoring stations enables us to notify the public when air quality is approaching unhealthful levels and to encourage clean air actions to help reduce air pollution. Included in the seven…

Based on the current smoke forecast models, air quality will likely worsen through the weekend as northeasterly surface winds transport additional wildfire smoke (PM2.5) from the north and east of our area and wildfire smoke begins to form a persistent pool east of the Cascades, according to the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency (Spokane Clean…

Spokane experienced two exceedances of the health-based standard set by EPA for ground-level ozone pollution in July 2021. The exceedances were due to elevated levels of wildfire smoke in our region combined with hot, sunny days. Ground-level ozone exceedances are determined using the 8-hour maximum average of the pollutant to find if levels are above…

On Saturday, July 10, 2021, air quality in Spokane was impacted by wildfires burning in the region. For about four hours, air quality ranged from Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups/Orange to Unhealthy/Red. The highest reading was the Airway Heights monitoring station with a Current Air Quality Index of 159 at 10:00 a.m. The overall daily, or…

A few months ago, we asked our Asbestos Updates email subscribers for questions they have about our asbestos regulatory program. Here are some commonly asked questions and answers: 

Summer is officially here and so is the heat. In the next week and a half, Spokane is likely to see triple digits on more than one occasion. As the temperatures begin to rise, so does ground-level ozone pollution in our area. Ozone can be found in two locations – in the Earth’s upper atmosphere…