A new study finds that wildfire smoke is worsening surface ozone, reversing progress the United States made on air quality over the past decade. Researchers report that ozone levels trend upward nationally from 2015 to 2024, with air quality deteriorating in the Midwest and Western U.S. The analysis attributes much of the increase to smoke associated with larger and more frequent wildfires. Taken together, the study says the worsening ozone represents a reversal of roughly four years of prior improvement, indicating that gains from emissions reductions and air-quality policies are being offset by the effects of wildfires. Reporting across outlets describes the change as smog becoming more prevalent again, particularly where wildfire impacts reach. The findings focus on surface ozone (a key component of smog) and use a multi-year record to assess how conditions have shifted since 2015. Overall, the study concludes that stronger wildfire-related pollution is undermining the long-running national decline in smog levels.
Study finds US wildfire smoke reverses years of air-quality ozone gains
A new study finds that wildfire smoke is worsening surface ozone, reversing progress the United States made on air quality over the past decade. Researchers report that ozone levels trend upward natio...
- Surface ozone levels (smog concentrations) increase from 2015 to 2024, according to a new study.
- Wildfire smoke is identified as a major contributor to the ozone worsening.
- The decline in air quality is reported across the Midwest and Western United States.
- Researchers say the change reverses about four years of prior air-quality gains.
- The findings relate to trends over the last decade, indicating cleaner-air progress is being offset by wildfire impacts.
Wildfires have worsened ozone levels across the United States so much over the last decade that they have reversed around four years of progress, a new study has found. Surface ozone levels, or smog concentrations, steadily increased from 2015 to 2024, deteriorating air quality across the Midwest and Western U.S., researchers at the University of […]
15 hours agoFor more than a decade, the United States dramatically reduced its national smog levels, but since 2015 smoke from increasingly larger wildfires is reversing that clean-up trend and making the air dirtier and deadlier, a new study finds.
5 days agoA new study finds that smoke from larger wildfires is reversing more than a decade of American improvements in smog
5 days ago
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