LAQN Pollution Episodes

Pollution Notification released on 06/01/2016

‘High’ PM10 Particulate Pollution Incident Notification for 27th December 2015

Widespread "high" particle pollution was experienced in London on 27th December 2015.

The Christmas and New Year period is normally a time of very low air pollution due to lower than usual traffic but recent years have seen pollution problems from increased decorative home-wood burning in open fires.

The episode on 27th December was unusual for several reasons. Analysis of particle size and chemical composition shows that it was not dominated by pollution from within London nor was it due to distant European traffic and industrial sources. Coupling the size and chemical information along with wind patterns suggests that this episode was most likely due to an influx of Saharan dust, similar to the episode on 17th December, but with additional local wood burning added to the particle mix during the evening.

London was not alone in experiencing pollution problems on the 27th. "Moderate" PM10 was measured over Surrey, Essex, Sussex and Hampshire along with much of England and Wales.