California cities now have the worst air pollution on Earth as smoke blows into town

Oakland, a Northern California city with a population of over 425,000, had the worst air quality in the world Saturday morning.

Wildfire smoke wafting over from the still-growing Camp Fire — by far the deadliest wildfire in state history — had inundated many heavily-populated California cities and towns with small bits of pollution thinner than the width of a human hair, called Particulate Matter 2.5, or PM 2.5.

Berkeley Earth, a scientific climate organization, keeps tabs on air pollution around the globe. As of Nov. 17 at 9:30 a.m. ET, Oakland topped the global list with particle concentrations of 167 μg/m3  (meaning micrograms per cubic meter) — which are levels deemed "Very Unhealthy" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Coming in a distant second is Kanpur, India with particulate levels of 132.  Read more...

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