Receive the Air Quality Forecast via Email

Summer is approaching, which means the air quality is going to get worse.  Triad Air Awareness, which issues the local daily Air Quality Forecast, now offers email updates.  Simply go to their website and sign up for this free service.  This is a very useful service, especially for those who are considered to be in a sensitive group (kids, athletes, anyone active outside, the elderly, people with asthma or other respiratory disease or allergies). This report is valid for Forsyth, Guilford, Alamance, Davidson, Randolph, Rockingham, Caswell, Davie, and Stokes counties in western NC and will be updated after 3:00 PM each business day. There is also a very handy weather synopsis included. You can sign up to receive the AQI every day, or just on alert days.  They use the EPA's EnviroFlash system to distribute the emails and they don't sell, trade or give away the email addresses.

The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For each of these pollutants, EPA has established national air quality standards to protect public health.Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that pose the greatest threat to human health in this country.

For more information about the AQI, visit this website.