about that winter air quality

homes sales decline, a gun shop closes and an inscrutable drug store ad

Winter air quality warnings are back, so later on a bit of the science behind them (it’s not complicated). It’s a quick Tuesday newsletter. Read to the end for an inscrutable drug store ad from 1922.

But first, the news:

• Northern B.C. home sales are happening at nearly half the rate they were last year.

• More than 3 dozen calves were killed in a highway crash west of the city last week. Dozens of others went on the run.

• K.K.S. Tactical Supplies, a guns and ammo shop, has announced its closure. Owner Cassy Premack previously warned that changes to federal guns law has left businesses like hers with thousands of dollars of inventory they are unable to sell. She told MyPGNow that they are currently sitting on $70,000 worth of inventory. I will, however, note that since KKS opened, so too has a branch of Corlane Sporting Goods, a long-established gun shop in Dawson Creek, so there’s also been extra competition.

• The Fire Pit is looking for boots and socks for people in need. Drop off ends Wednesday at noon.

• If you have any Bones Bucks (!?) spend it by the end of the year.

• Today:

  Joel McKay 🇨🇦 @JoelCMcKay

  Hey #CityofPG - don’t forget: this is a thing. With local writers. Happening tomorrow. Come watch me trip over my words.

  

stinky stagnation

PrinceGeorgeCitizen @PGCitizen

High concentrations of fine particulate matter are expected to persist until weather conditions change.

princegeorgecitizen.comPrince George currently under air quality advisoryHigh concentrations of fine particulate matter are expected to persist until weather conditions change

This Reddit post wonders why we get so many air quality advisories in the winter. The comments are correct but incomplete, so I decided to go right to the most recent report on the topic I could find, prepared by the Ministry of Environment in 2016:

“The city centre is located in a bowl shaped river valley, surrounded by steep ridge lines. As a result, Prince George, like many other interior communities in BC, is susceptible to high levels of air pollution during temperature inversions, when a stable layer of cooler air is capped by a layer of warmer air. Such conditions are often associated with light or calm winds and can persist for hours or days, resulting in stagnation of the air mass and a temporary buildup of pollutants in the valley. Temperature inversions can form at any time of year, but most commonly occur during winter months.”

There’s also an in-depth, multi-year model from UNBC on the sources of the pollution and their relative distribution throughtout the year (spoiler: in winter the primary source is wood heating and other heat soruces). So there you are.

what?

I do not understand this ad from the Prince George Citizen, Nov. 10, 1922.