Lexington Air Quality Index hits red, unhealthy category
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Lexington’s Air Quality Index hit 155 around 8 a.m. Wednesday following a wave of haze still billowing down throughout the eastern part of the U.S. from Canadian wildfires.
The 155 AQI puts Lexington in the red category, where everyone may begin to experience health effects.
The National Weather Service identifies the red category, an AQI range of 151-200, as air quality that “may affect some members of the general public and members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”
Other AQI ranges are as follows:
- 0-50: Good (green) | Satisfactory, little or no risk
- 51-100: Moderate (yellow) | Acceptable, but moderate health concern for very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution for some pollutants
- 101-150: Unhealthy for sensitive groups (orange) | General public not likely to be affected. Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects
- 151-200: Unhealthy (red) | Everyone may begin to experience health effects and sensitive groups more serious health effects
- 201-300: Very Unhealthy (purple) | Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects
- 301-500: Hazardous (maroon) | Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday that 76,129 square kilometers (29,393 square miles) of land including forests have burned across Canada since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 75,596 square kilometers (29,187 square miles), according to the National Forestry Database, according to the Associated Press.
On June 8, Lexington’s AQI hit 106.
