Metro Vancouver is looking for people to take part in an air quality survey.
With the heat and wildfires across the province this summer, air quality advisories became a common occurrence with warnings issued to people with health concerns, the elderly and infants. The 11-day stretch running Aug. 13 to Aug. 23 was the longest period of consecutive air quality advisories in the region’s history.
In a series of tweets, Metro Vancouver was appealing to people in the Lower Mainland to take part in its air quality project, also asking people who “have their own air quality sensors” to take part.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), Environment Canada and Metro Vancouver work together to monitor air quality.
The BCCDC warns that wildfires are predicted to become more common, making their work to protect vulnerable people more difficult.
Metro Vancouver has five air quality monitoring stations in Burnaby, at Burmount, Kensington Park, Burnaby Mountain, North Eton and Burnaby South where they collect air quality and meteorological data.
An air quality advisory was issued by Metro Vancouver as late as Sept. 6, but cancelled the next day, as the province grappled with lingering forest fires.
The average temperature in August, as recorded at Burnaby Mountain, was 19.6 degree Celsius, which is 2.4 degrees higher than the average temperature (based on data from 1981 to 2010).
For more information about the Metro Vancouver air quality survey, contact [email protected].
- with files from Glacier Media
