MACON, Ga. — One of the best things about the summer is traveling to see family and friends or going on vacation. With more people on the roads though, the amount of pollution goes up.
Car exhaust reacts with the abundant sunlight in the summer and creates what we call ground-level ozone.
On really hot days, the heat makes the air so still and stiff, it can increase the amount of pollution.
The lower level pollution causes poorer air quality, which can lead to breathing problems and coughing.
Thankfully, in Central Georgia, we not only see a lot of heat but also a lot of humidity. And yes, we said thankfully!
You might think higher humidity would make it harder to breathe, but in this case, humidity is good.
When we combine the humidity with the heat, we get more cloud cover and the chance for summertime storms.
Clouds block incoming sunlight and stop it from reacting with the vehicle exhaust, which in turn inhibits ozone pollution from forming.
If some of those clouds produce rain, the rain can also wash some of the pollutants out and improve our air quality.
That's how your weather works!
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