YYC air quality readings thrown off by a spider
Posted Aug 28, 2015 7:51 am.
Last Updated Aug 28, 2015 9:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Those air quality ratings in Calgary this week, were definitely off, and it’s all because of a spider.
A spokesman for Alberta Environment and Parks says a staff member found the arachnid inside equipment at a monitoring station.
The spider got in the way of the light that is uses to measure particulate matter, skewing the results.
It was when the air quality rating of 28 was recorded on Wednesday that sparked staff “spidey senses” to deduce there was an error.
We could have a short reprieve from wildfire smoke wafting into the Calgary region.
Breakfast Television meteorologist Andrew Schultz says a west wind Friday morning will help clear the air a little, but smoke and haze will return later in the day.
“Unfortunately this afternoon it’s going to switch up to a southwest breeze 20 gusting to 40, more ‘umpf’ to the wind, so it’s going to deliver more of that smoke into the region, so [Friday morning] a bit of a break but by [afternoon] those advisories will be bumping up again,” Schultz said.
According to Environment Canada’s air quality index, the forecast high for Friday is eight.
