MEMPHIS — State environmental officials have issued air quality alerts for Tennessee’s major metropolitan areas for today.

The Memphis area has a Code Red alert, which means air pollution is severe enough to pose a threat to the general population.

The Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga areas, as well as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, are under Code Orange alerts. That means pollution — mostly ozone — will likely make it harder for sensitive groups to breathe.

Those would include very young children, older people and those with breathing difficulties.

Forecaster Darrell Massie with the National Weather Service office in Nashville said the typical summer pattern of calm air at the surface and sinking air from above concentrates ozone and other pollutants.

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