WMO Air quality and climate bulletin No.1
This issue of the WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin provides an update on the current global distribution of particulate matter, highlighting the contributions of extreme wildfire events in the year 2020. 2020 was also notable for the spread of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the respiratory illness known as COVID-19.
To assess the impact of the fires on outdoor air pollution across North America, the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office estimated how many people were exposed to varying levels of pollutants (Stieb et al., 2008). Using data from the multi-pollutant Air Quality and Health Index, the Office found that the number of people who likely experienced unhealthy levels of air pollution increased during the fire season and peaked in the second week of September, when most of the intense fires occurred in the western United States. For more than a week, 20–50 million people – mostly in the western United States but also in regions downwind – were classified as having a “High” or “Very High” health risk.
Explore further
