A mysterious air quality emergency has broken out in Chicago, as the city has reportedly been blanketed with toxic chemicals Wednesday.
Air quality maps reveal an enormous cloud of hazardous air sitting over the entire Chicago metropolitan area, with readings reaching 500 on the Air Quality Index (AQI) – the worst possible score on Google Maps.
An AQI of 500 denotes extremely hazardous air quality, where pollutant levels are at or beyond the upper limits of what monitoring systems typically measure.
This is typically seen during extreme events like massive wildfires or volcanic eruptions.
Residents in the Chicago area took to social media Wednesday afternoon to share what their smartphones were telling them about the hazardous conditions outside.
One person posted an image on Reddit, revealing that the AQI in Chicago had reached 405 just after noon ET.
‘How dangerous is it for me and my kid to be outside today?’ they asked.
Another person revealed on X that they had received an air quality alert message on their phone, warning that ‘everyone is even more likely to experience serious health effects.’
Google Maps revealed a massive cloud of hazardous sitting over Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday
Another person on X shared a message from their son, showing that Chicago’s air was inundated with both carbon monoxide and PM10 – meaning particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers or smaller.
Both are toxic to humans, but they harm the body in different ways and vary in their toxicity depending on exposure levels and duration.
The readings, taken at 2pm ET, showed that Chicago was seeing carbon monoxide levels of 318 ppb (parts per billion) in their air.
While that level is relatively low in terms of outdoor air quality, the amount of fine particulate matter in the air set off alarm bells on Google Maps’ air quality tracking system.
A PM10 concentration of 669 µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic meter) in the air of a city is extremely bad and falls into the ‘Hazardous’ category of the Air Quality Index, indicating serious health risks for everyone.
While Google is sounding the alarm in Chicago, other air quality systems have a conflicting story.
Both AccuWeather and IQAir listed the city’s air quality as either ‘fair’ or ‘good.’
