In December 2004, hazy conditions covered the valley.
Yet -
"This past winter season has been the cleanest winter we've seen in many many years," said Daniel Inouye.
Since 2011 as a matter of fact.
"Most of it had to do with the weather," said Inouye.
According to the burn code, for the 2015 and 2016 winter season we had 111 green days, eight yellows, and two reds.
Two years ago -
"We had probably a half dozen consecutive days of red burn codes," said Inouye.
Fifteen total. A red code means burning is not allowed. Last year we had seven.
Back in February 2010, we started seeing some pollution, due to an inversion in the air.
An inversion occurs when you have colder air at the surface and warmer air aloft. Snow on the ground can really lock in an inversion and keep the stagnate air around for days if not weeks at a time. You need an incoming storm or plenty of wind to clean out the air.
"Overall our last winter season was very very clean. Especially during December and January when we would typically see higher air pollution," said Inouye.
The calendar shows a lot of green and not much yellow or red during the month of January. We were only in the red this winter from the afternoon of November 30th through Tuesday, December 1st. We had several consecutive days in the yellow during the month of November as well. While February was a mild month overall we managed to stay in the green.
