2021 Is The Worst Year For Air Quality In Duluth On Record
2021 has been one for the record books in more ways than one. When it comes to these broken records, there are certainly some we don't want to be known for.
So far this year, we have broken a ton of different weather record in the Twin Ports. We have La Niña to thank for some of them, like our deep freeze from back in February of 2021!
In case you tried to forget, we saw a La Niña winter. This brought us even colder temperatures than a usual Northland winter. At one point, we had nearly three-hundred hours of consecutive wind chill advisories. This was after one of the coldest starts to the month ever!
Shortly after our brutal February, we saw record-breaking heat in the Twin Ports. As for Duluth, we hit the mid-fifties in early March. If you have lived in the area before, you know this is unheard of!
A few months later, we saw a crazy temperature drop. You probably remember when parts of the Twin Ports dropped more than forty degrees in a twelve hour period. We are used to temperatures being all over the place but this was truly something I haven't experienced before in a single day!
Fast forward to summertime and the records keep happening. You all know by know it is one of the driest years ever, with a huge portion of Minnesota seeing severe or extreme drought conditions.
Now, we have broken yet another record. FOX 21 Chief Meteorologist Sam Gabrielli shared a startling statistic on his Facebook page Monday (August 2nd). According to his report, 2021 is the worst year for air quality in Duluth since 2000.
As mentioned, records for air quality began in 2000, which means for two decades, we haven't seen air quality this poor in Duluth.
This isn't a huge shock, however. We have seen air quality alerts off and on throughout the month of July and even into early August. Hopefully things can clear up soon.
As for what the rest of the month holds, the Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting a dry month with otherwise mild conditions.
Looking towards the end of the year, we can expect similar conditions to what we saw at this time last year! Why? Because the National Weather Service says La Niña is likely to return and continue into at least January.