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Washington D.C. Air Quality Reaches Very Unhealthy Levels After July 4 Fireworks, Set to Improve
A purple air quality alert covered Washington, D.C., and parts of northern Virginia on Sunday after Saturday fireworks. The capital ranked sixth on IQAir's global pollution list that day.
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And parts of northern Virginia received a purple air quality alert on Sunday, indicating very unhealthy conditions tied to fireworks displays the night before. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments issued the alert, which advises against all outdoor physical activity for sensitive groups and limits prolonged outdoor activity for others.
Sensitive groups include people with heart or lung diseases, older adults, pregnant people, children and teenagers, and outdoor workers.
Suburban areas around the capital received orange alerts, while parts of Maryland received yellow alerts. Air quality is expected to improve steadily over the next few days. , ranked sixth among the world's most polluted cities according to IQAir, behind Lahore, Kinshasa, Jakarta, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.
IQAir data showed Detroit briefly ranked as the world's most polluted city early Sunday morning, with Chicago and Minneapolis also near the top of its list. The rankings followed a Fourth of July event in the capital that featured what organizers described as the largest fireworks display ever seen over D.C. A heat advisory remained in effect for the region until 8 p.m.
ET on Sunday.
