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- Two Stories About The Deadly Seriousness Of Driving
- Business Calendar 05/19/2008
- Brown-Waite Votes Against Her Own Vets Education Benefits Bill
- Grego Picked For Osceola School Superintendent
- Details, Ticket Availability On Obama Event
- Confirmed: Obama At Forum
- Speechless
- Dockery Says Her Poll Shows Orlando-Area Residents Oppose CSX Deal
- State GOP “Welcomes” Obama with Mocking Web Site
- Chance Of Rain Increases As You Go North
- Putnam, Hastings, Klein On Israeli Trip
- Pinellas Dems: Obama To Appear At St. Pete Times Forum
- Putnam Part of Delegation Going to Israel
- Putnam: House Soon To Approve Vets’ Outpatient Clinic In Brandon
- House Leaders Still Considering CSX Special session
Some fog over areas away from the coast should continue to build until about 9 a.m. today. Most of it won’t be too thick, cutting visibility to a mile or so.
But there are some spots out there such as eastern Hernando County where the soupy air is dropping visibility down to about the length of your headlight beam. Some of the patchy areas out there can mean visibility of one-quarter mile or less.
Also, some fog is forming along Interstate 4 through Polk County, especially in the areas that usually get it.
Later today you could see a repeat of the air pollution warning that came out Tuesday. The same weather conditions - that on Tuesday afternoon allowed ozone to nudge into levels unhealthy for people sensitive to the pollutant - could hang around today.
The high-pressure area that’s keeping the sky rain-free also is preventing air from the ground to mix with air at higher levels, trapping pollution down here where we breathe. Lots of times you’ll hear this called an inversion.
When air doesn’t mix, pollution near the ground builds during the day and reaches levels that spark air quality alerts in the afternoon. The same thing happened last week. The ozone pollution level tends to be fine during the morning and starts to build as the sun heats pollution, mostly from car exhaust, and converts it to ozone.
On Tuesday, pollution started building to the unhealthy levels in southwest Hillsborough County during the early afternoon. That’s where ozone pollution frequently seems to start. Eventually the pollution spread over nearly all the Tampa Bay area and much of Central Florida.
The temperature on Tuesday peaked at 88 at Tampa International Airport, and the forecast for today is 89.
The good news is that the pollution level only nosed into the unhealthy range on Tuesday and last week. Health officials consider ozone pollution unhealthy when the air quality index is from 101 to 150. The reading on Tuesday and last week was 101, just inside the unhealthy range.
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