'Days-long stagnation event' to impact air quality

While skiers hitting the slopes should enjoy plenty of sun and blue sky this week, worker bees in the valley are likely to be stuck in frozen and stinky soup.

Air quality is expected to get progressively worse over the next week as strong valley inversions intensify across Western Montana.

Wednesday marked the beginning of a “days-long stagnation event,” according to an air quality forecast from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. High pressure centered over the northern Rockies will create very cold pools of air in valleys and strong inversions that are unlikely to break during the day.

This setup is likely to last through the weekend, the DEQ predicts. Areas of freezing fog is likely every day through next Wednesday with lows dipping into the single digits in Whitefish.

“We’re expecting inversions in all the valleys over the next five days,” said Kristen Martin, air quality meteorologist for the Montana DEQ. “We might see some clearing, but overall it will be fairly poor air quality.”

During prolonged inversions there is very little air movement, and pollution such as smog or wood fire smoke can get trapped in the valley.

“The air doesn’t move for days at a time,” Martin explained.

She advises people with respiratory issues to check the Flathead Valley air monitoring data station at www.todaysair.mt.gov. Readings are taken at a site in Columbia Falls.

According to DEQ recommendations, sensitive people should consider limiting prolonged outdoor exertion during moderate air quality. When the air quality is flagged as unhealthy, active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion. Everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.