Fort Air Partnership (FAP), the organization that monitors the air local residents breathe, released its 2022 Annual Report to the Community today.
Highlights
- The number of hours of air monitoring in 2022 was 55,611 hours. Of these hours, 94.9% were low-risk Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), and 4.8% were moderate-risk AQHI.
- Just over 0.2% of the hours monitored were high or very high-risk AQHI. Wildfire smoke most frequently contributed to high-risk and very high-risk Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) ratings measured at Fort Air Partnership’s monitoring stations in 2022. Meteorological conditions and temperature inversions were the second largest contributor to high or very high-risk AQHI.
- The FAP network for collecting and reporting on air quality data had a 99.2% uptime in 2022.
- The Town of Lamont Portable Air Monitoring Station Study wrapped up in 2022. This portable station was eventually moved to Newbrook, Alberta, and a continuous monitoring station is now permanently operating in the Town of Lamont.
- The Elk Island National Park Air Monitoring Project showed that campfires can lead to poorer evening air quality.
- FAP enhanced its social media presence, was part of a citizen random telephone survey, and the Fresh Air Experience contest was once again successful.
Refer to all of our news and reports in the Library section of www.fortair.org
Low-risk AQHI relatively static over the past five years
Although we shared this information in our last news release, we believe the information below is important to repeat.
As illustrated in the chart below, low-risk AQHI ratings in the FAP Airshed remain relatively static since 2019. The uptick in high and very-high-risk AQHI in 2021 was mainly due to wildfire smoke. (Chart attached also.)
Click here to view the 2022 Fort Air Partnership Annual Report to the Community.