Chengdu Air Dirtier than Beijing's in February

[Stevec]

February Air Pollution Report: Chengdu vs Beijing

During most of February, I recorded the daily AQI (Air Quality Index)(PM 2.5) for Chengdu & Beijing from the website AQICN.org.

Chengdu’s air pollution was much worse than Beijing’s during February, see below:

FEBRUARY 2016 – CHENGDU AIR vs BEIJING AIR (AQI)(PM 2.5) measured once per day

HIGHER NUMBER = DIRTIER AIR

Chengdu daily AQI (average) = 167 (UNHEALTHY)

Beijing daily AQI = 66 (MODERATE)

I did not record the daily AQI during the Chinese New Year holiday (Feb. 7-13). The AQI for both cities would probably have been slightly lower (improved) had I included that info, as the air tends to be cleaner during long holidays.

[Chris Ziich]

I just got back to Chengdu after spending 3 months in the US, then spent the entire day outside doing yoga, cycling, and playing basketball. I think it was 175 yesterday, and I could definitely feel it in my lungs.

[Kim Duistermaat]

We have been monitoring and recording almost daily for the past four years. Chengdu air is on average much worse than Beijing. In Beijing, there is one or two bad days, followed by days of blue skies and relatively clean air. In Chengdu, many months of the year there is a constant high level of air pollution. The average is worse than Beijing. On a positive note, the air pollution in winter times seems to have become less intense each winter since 2012-13, which was particularly bad. This winter, there have only been a few ‘dark purple’ days in the US embassy readings for December, while in 2013 both January and February had almost a week of such pollution (over 300 aqi).

[Author]

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