Pollutionwatch: November 2007

November is traditionally the worst month in the UK for particle pollution due to smoke from fireworks and bonfires. However, winter conditions also led to repeated pollution episodes throughout the month. The effects of pollution from Guy Fawkes' night is heavily influenced by two main factors. Firstly, weather conditions determine if the pollution is dispersed by the wind or washed out by the rain. Secondly, if the 5th of November is on or close to a weekend, the majority of firework events will happen around the same time - greatly increasing the concentrations of pollution being put into the air. If, however, it lies in the middle of the week, events are spread across the week, and the two weekends either side, greatly reducing the pollution load at any one time. This year the 5th was on the Monday, and high pressure brought cold, calm conditions which led to huge peaks in pollution on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights. On the Sunday night, the air quality standard for particles was broken at 32 out of the 55 particle monitoring stations in the UK monitoring network, with 5 sites recording 'high' concentrations and 4 recording 'very high' levels. The worst affected places were in the middle of the UK, in Manchester, Leicester, Stoke and Nottingham. Following a spell of unsettled weather, another area of high pressure passed across the UK leading to spells of 'high' pollution in both London and Scotland between the 14th and the 20th. Then to round the month off, Marylebone Road in London saw 'moderate' levels of particles on the 27th and Port Talbot in Wales had 'high' levels on the 30th.