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Concerned readers who received the warning of "very poor" air quality have contacted both Norran and Skellefteå municipality.
One reader wrote in an email to Norran that the air quality index in Skellefteå had reached an alarming level of 500.
– For those who are not familiar with the AQI scale, this level is the highest possible and indicates an acute health risk for residents, the reader said.
According to the map, readings as high as 500 on the Air Quality Index (AQI) indicate very poor air quality.
Ulla Bro, an environmental inspector at Skellefteå municipality, says that even during the fire at Degermyran a few years ago, there were elevated levels, but nothing as extreme as this. Even during the fire at Rönnskärsverken last spring, when the smoke drifted out to sea, there was nothing similar.
– If you look at the map and zoom out, it covers a large area, and it's only here over Skellefteå. You usually have to go to the Sahara to see colors like that, she said.
– It's very dramatic. I wrote to Microsoft (whose map features the worrying cloud) because people are contacting me here. I asked them where they got the actual information from.
Skellefteå's own particle instruments have been out of service for some time, so she can't confirm whether the information is accurate or not, although these maps rely at least partially on data from local sources, so the readings are unlikely to be accurate.
– Our particle instruments have been in for repairs. Then we got a loaner instrument, which also stopped working three weeks ago. We installed a new instrument last week, but it only worked for a short time, and then it stopped working as well. There may be a communication problem with the server.
How should the public feel about this cloud? Should they be worried?
– It seems very unlikely. If there really was a significant emission, we would sense it when we go outside, and we don't. It's hard to believe that this is based on real measurements. Unless it's satellite data and the cloud is high in the air. Then it's something moving in the atmosphere, but we don't know what.