Two U.S. cities have the worst air quality in the world as fires burn across the West

Portland and Seattle have the worst air quality in the world as major wildfires burn across the West.

According to IQAir, an air quality monitoring website that ranks air pollution internationally, Portland had the worst air quality Friday with an air quality index of 204 as of noon Pacific Time. Seattle had the second worst with an air quality index of 193 as of noon Pacific Time.

“In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone with access to a window, the air quality in Portland is horrendous right now—and likely to get worse,” the Willamette Week reported.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed Portland’s air quality index even higher on Friday at 349, The Oregonian reported.

Air quality index is a measurement of how polluted the air is, according to the EPA. The index goes from 0 to 500, and a value of 0 to 50 is considered good air quality, the EPA said.

“AQI values below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory,” the EPA said on its website. “When AQI values are above 100, air quality is considered to be unhealthy-at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher.”

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality “issued an advisory for the entire state,” the Willamette Week reported.

At least 15 people have died from the wildfires this year in California, Washington and Oregon, CNN reported. An estimated 500,000 residents “are under an evacuation warning or order” in Oregon as of Thursday, which is more than 10% of the state’s population, according to The Washington Post.

This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 11:57 AM with the headline "Two U.S. cities have the worst air quality in the world as fires burn across the West."