Wednesday night and into early Thursday, air quality levels in Northwest Georgia were comparable to dozens of cities in some of the world’s most polluted countries.
Except, the levels were only high directly next to the sensors, officials said.
When an air quality monitoring system near Rossville had readings that dipped into red, the third-worst air quality category, the agency that manages the system investigated.
The sensor picked up particulates from a nearby house fire and dirt-heavy construction near the sensor, the assistant branch chief for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, DeAnna Oser, said. The readings were localized to the monitor and did not pose a risk to the region at large.
The dust and smoke combined and didn’t move easily, Oser said, as a recent cold front led to denser, more packed air. With short-term, localized air quality drops like Thursday’s, the agency typically doesn’t issue alerts, but it does have a threshold.