{"id":15396,"date":"2011-09-20T21:17:52","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T04:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=15396"},"modified":"2011-09-20T21:17:52","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T04:17:52","slug":"report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Five Smoggiest US Cities Are in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

And they’re not necessarily the ones you might guess
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

California may have great weather but also some of the nation’s worst air. The advocacy group Environment California<\/a> has issued a report ranking the nation’s worst metropolitan areas for air quality. The five worst are in California, as are six of the top ten.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Smog in the Los Angeles Basin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on data from 2010, the report’s “Top Smoggiest Areas in the US” were:<\/p>\n

1. Riverside-San Bernardino<\/p>\n

2. Visalia-Tulare-Porterville<\/p>\n

3. Bakersfield (tie)<\/p>\n

3. Los Angeles-Long Beach (tie)<\/p>\n

5. Fresno<\/p>\n

The report tallies 110 “smog days” for worst-ranked Riverside-San Bernardino:<\/p>\n

“…meaning that the area, home to more than 3 million residents, had unhealthy air on one out of three days in 2010. Twenty-four of those days were categorized as \u201cred-alert days,\u201d meaning that air quality was so poor that anyone could experience adverse health effects…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a bit like golf. In this contest, a high score is not good. Among other California contenders in the top 20, Sacramento checked in at tenth (tied with St. Louis and Knoxville, TN; and San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles at 17th (tied with cities in New Jersey and the Carolinas). In a separate ranking of only “large metroplitan areas,” San Diego also makes the list, and the group’s ranking of “small” metro areas includes such geographically diverse California towns as Merced (tied for 2nd) and Chico-Paradise (tied for 16th), which is tucked into the foothills of the northern Sierra.<\/p>\n

The 61-page report<\/a> uses as its benchmark the (still in place) 2008 federal ozone standard for counting “smog days.” The information is parsed and sorted into several more lists by geography, metro area size, and time frame.<\/p>\n

One of the main constituents of smog, nitrous oxide<\/a>, is also a potent greenhouse gas, which contributes to global warming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No shocker that the Southland, San Joaquin Valley among the worst of the worst. But some towns that made the list might surprise you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":15397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,522],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-15396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thescience","tag-air-pollution","tag-smog"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nReport: Five Smoggiest US Cities Are in California | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report: Five Smoggiest US Cities Are in California | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No shocker that the Southland, San Joaquin Valley among the worst of the worst. But some towns that made the list might surprise you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-21T04:17:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/09\/IMG_0126.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"337\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@voxterra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/\",\"name\":\"Report: Five Smoggiest US Cities Are in California | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-21T04:17:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-21T04:17:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/20\/report-five-smoggiest-us-cities-are-in-california\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report: Five Smoggiest US Cities Are in California\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\",\"name\":\"Craig Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/dd8f4f4f978df3faac9db4c510939ea0\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Craig Miller\"},\"description\":\"Craig is a former KQED Science editor, specializing in weather, climate, water & energy issues, with a little seismology thrown in just to shake things up. 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