NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville and much of the Middle Tennessee region was under an Air Quality Alert to start the week. At times, you could barely see the skyline as people commuted into downtown.
Conditions gradually improved over the course of the day. But according to some experts, we could continue to have the hazy conditions for the next few months.
"Believe it or not, the wildfires in Canada, they’ve already burned close to 25 million acres up there," Henry Rothenberg, Storm 5 weekend meteorologist, said.
According to him, an Air Quality Alert isn't just a concern for visibility, it can be extremely unhealthy for certain types of people.
"Young people, the elderly, anyone with any type of respiratory ailment you want to limit being outdoors," Rothenberg said.
That's why air quality alerts are issued in the first place.
"It’s a lot like a weather forecast. It’s what they expect to see," John Finke, Director of Metro Public Health's Air Pollution Control, said.
Metro Public Health provides data to federal agencies so they can forecast more accurate air quality alerts.
"We operate a network of air monitors that collect real-time concentrations in the ambient air," Finke said.
Air quality forecasts get even trickier to forecast in Nashville because of topography. Davidson County sits in what's called the Nashville Basin.
"It’s kind of coming down into a valley, if you will. And it’s just meandering. It’s sitting here, you don’t have a strong wind to help kick it out down at the surface," Rothenberg said.
Between the basin and the fact these wildfires don't seem to be dying off anytime soon, our views may be hidden by the haze for several more months.
"I think it will continue, off and on, throughout the summer," Finke said. "But we’ll just have to wait and see."
In addition to some health concerns, air quality alerts also mean some construction crews aren't allowed to operate.
"We have a few sources in town that we ask to shut down during an air quality alert, but it’s really more of land clearing where they’re doing a lot of burning. Those get put on hold during days like this so we don’t contribute to the problem," Finke said.
