There’s a new way to monitor Nashville and Clarksville’s air quality from day to day. The state has begun a Twitter feed for air quality forecasts, just as hot summer air increases the likelihood that pollution will be a problem.
The hot air of summer can work to trap pollutants, like car emissions, closer to the surface of the earth. That, in turn, can lead to the development of ground-level ozone, which is the primary ingredient in smog.
The state’s air quality forecasts use a color-coded alert system to tell whether the air is polluted enough to be a potential health risk. For example, children, the elderly, and people with lung and heart conditions might have problems breathing the air on orange days. Red alerts are issued when the air is bad enough to be unhealthy for everyone.
Tennessee’s Department of Environment and Conservation began using Twitter to announce those forecasts last week. There are separate feeds for a handful of cities, plus one for the Great Smoky Mountains. Similar messages were already available via email and text messages.
The Twitter feeds are named as follows:
TNair_Nashville
TNair_TriCities
TNair_Clarksville
TNair_Chattanooga
TNair_Knoxville
TNair_GreatSmokies
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