The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) for the Heartland area for November 24-30th were released, with a defined spike about mid-way through the week due to a unique weather condition.

Between November 26 and 27, all of the sites run by the Heartland Air Monitoring Partnership (HAMP) saw a rise, with the Fort Saskatchewan station rising all the way up from a low risk reading to a very high risk reading in just a few hours.

HAMP credits this sudden spike to a meteorological condition called a temperature inversion which affected almost all of the Edmonton Metropolitan Area.

A temperature inversion is when a layer of warm air caused by some sort of event rises up and comes to rest between two areas of colder air. This causes the colder air to recirculate after being blocked by the warmer air

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