Quesnel remains under a Dust Advisory for a fourth straight day.
Ralph Adams, an Air Quality Meteorologist with the Ministry of Environment, says while it’s normal to have periods of high dust at this time of year, he says this year has definitely not been normal…
“I think there is no question that this year the duration has been longer than normal. Normally there are one or two days where we issue an advisory in Quesnel. This year there has certainly been more than that, and this is the longest one i can remember.”
Adams says the PM 10 readings peaked at around 8-45 this morning at 135 micrograms per cubic metre.
That was an hourly reading however and they are quite volatile and normally go down quickly as well.
He says the current average reading over the past 24 hours is at 51.8.
Williams Lake, which is not under an advisory, is at 30.6 micrograms per cubic metre.
Adams says until Quesnel gets some rain the readings will likely remain high.
“Really under these conditions, when you’ve got a high pressure system sitting over the interior of the province, it is suppressing winds, it is quite dry during the day because it is getting so warm. Until the road traction material is all picked up and the residual washed away by the first rains, we are going to get high dust levels.”