Monitoring & Assessments
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) works with local, state and federal
partners to monitor and evaluate air quality. DEQ maintains 36 monitoring sites located across the Commonwealth in order to measure a variety of pollutants, including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate pollution as well as other toxic pollutants.
DEQ issues air quality forecasts using a variety of tools to estimate how pollution travels on the air. These include weather models, satellite images, air monitoring data and computer models.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a national index for reporting forecasted and daily air quality. It illustrates how clean or polluted the air is and highlights associated health concerns. Focusing on health effects that can occur within hours or days after breathing polluted air, AQI is divided into several color-coded categories, which correspond to different levels of health concerns.
AQI information and forecasts can be found on the DEQ air quality data page-Link: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/air/monitoring-assessments/air-quality-forecastasts by region, as well as at AirNow.gov. Link: https://www.airnow.gov/state/?name=virginia DEQ. Typically DEQ issues air quality forecasts daily and health alerts when the estimated AQI indicates unhealthy conditions.
Click to subscribe to receive daily Air Quality Forecasts and Health Alerts in your DEQ Region by email. For a national map of alerts across the country, you can sign up on Enviroflash. Link: https://www.enviroflash.info/