WMO Air quality and climate bulletin No. 3

This third edition of the WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin examines the numerous ways in which heatwaves can affect air quality, with some examples from 2022. The WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin reports annually on the state of air quality and its connections to climate change, reflecting on the geographical distribution of and changes in the levels of traditional pollutants.

While large fire events and desert dust storms were less prevalent overall, as compared to previous years, many local fires and storms of this nature still occurred, leading to large quantities of aerosols or PM impacting highly-populated regions. Heatwaves leading to fires in the western United States, and heatwaves accompanied by desert dust intrusions across Europe, led to dangerous levels of PM exposure. Both high temperatures and large concentrations of PM, as occurred in these two very different events from 2022, can pose substantial health risks, especially to vulnerable populations.