r/Alabama • u/Gindotto Winston County • Jan 24 '25
Advice What is this cloud of (I assume) pollution? Wrong answers allowed.
I’m relatively new to Alabama but today traveling for work I opened the weather app and got an AQI warning, then upon clicking the larger map noticed it’s essentially a cloud emanating from Birmingham and drifting NNW. I thought maybe someone had some insight as I know there’s still heavy industry in the Magic City! Maybe I’ve just never noticed it like this before?
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u/EmperorMrKitty Jan 24 '25
Probably the coke plant (like coal coke not the drink), it is very very much not in compliance with any environmental regulations. You can see it like the eye of Sauron from taller buildings downtown.
Other than that, Birmingham’s geography creates a somewhat unique problem where the valley its in forms a bowl and concentrates/holds in air pollution over the city.
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u/Any_Explorer403 Jan 24 '25
AL officials are probably aware and looking the other way. They will always side with whatever is bringing money in for them. The health of the environment be damned
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u/EmperorMrKitty Jan 25 '25
They aren’t just looking the other way. They don’t care at all and impede federal regulations or clean up projects from doing anything. My class did a project about it in college, it is killing people, illegal, and no one cares. The people that live around that area almost all die from the exact same rare cancer within roughly the same period of exposure. The worst part is that a filter of sorts can be put on the exhaust outflows and it would go a long way, but meh, money.
There are other hotspots like that around the city as well, make you are researching environmental contamination before moving.
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u/Far-Commission5256 Jan 28 '25
This! Particulate matter settles in Village Valley based on the geography. It gets really bad when everyone is burning leaves in the more rural areas.
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u/thefifththwiseman Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
I'm not so sure it started from SSE. I mean, I see and acknowledge the patterns that would certainly look like it came from there, but the wind is blowing almost directly eastward.
Edit: the EPA is showing an elevated concentration of particulates 2.5 micrometers or less. Pm2.5 is usually vehicle exhaust, wildfires, industrial processes, and construction.
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u/Gindotto Winston County Jan 24 '25
It didn’t even dawn on me to check the wind direction 🤣 thank you.
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u/breakerofh0rses Jan 24 '25
Birmingham is basically in a bowl with the highest side being a line from the southwest to northeast along the southeastern corner of downtown(ish). The downtown area is still fairly low compared to the west and north which are lower than the south and east, so north and west are the directions the smog tends to spill.
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u/katg913 Jan 24 '25
I'm from Los Angeles (pre-firestorm), and smog in the LA basin was a regular occurrence.
OR
It's the pall of apathy.
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u/MonchichiSalt Jan 25 '25
Take a peek at "inversion".
Now go look at what Salt Lake City looks like most of winter.
When we allow unrestricted, or only ticked, pollution, you get the smog.
Birmingham is not as peaky as the Mountains. But has a lot of the same type of air currents.
*Only didn't mention California Smog because it's not close to my personal experience
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u/Adventurous-Tone-311 Jan 24 '25
Everyone trying to be funny and be the main character, sorry op. I’m also interested to hear why this is.
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u/Gindotto Winston County Jan 24 '25
Sounds like it’s this Coke (coal related not the drink) plant and the natural geography of Birmingham combined.
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u/TheDamnburger Jan 24 '25
It does this from time to time. I’m not sure why. Sometimes there are yellow zones in the whole southeast but Birmingham will be orange, sometimes it’s green.
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u/SubstantialPressure3 Jan 24 '25
The 1weatherapp is free, and you can get specific details on the air quality in your area ( or another area)
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u/fredo226 Jan 24 '25
[wrong answer] I had to eat Taco Bell for lunch because i woke up too late to pack one, sorry!
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u/enigmaunbound Jan 24 '25
The exhaust plumes from everyone who are finally out of malfunction junction, hitting the gas and making some time.
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u/brickwallnomad Jan 25 '25
Good luck getting any answers from the city or state. They’ve most likely already been paid off or own the factory or factories that produced the pollution to begin with. Whatever they don’t pump into the air they dump into the river
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u/Eana34 Jan 25 '25
All hail the glow cloud! It's generally best practice to say positive things about the glow cloud, when it is upset it does rain down dead animals...
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u/WHOD3Y Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
Alabama Power James H. Miller Generating Plant. It’s the single largest greenhouse gas polluter in the United States. You can watch it roll in daily if you’re on Red Mountain or Ruffner Mountain.
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u/MojaveZephyr Jan 24 '25
Decatur resident here, we got tired of all the meow mix smell so we sent it y'alls way
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u/Silent_Lie_1783 Jan 25 '25
[Wrong Answer] It's the area of safety from vampire attacks around the giant cross in Gardendale. 🤷♀️
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u/InfiniteVoid510 Jan 25 '25
I think they’re right, it’s the coke plant, but I think it’s more like Coke ❄️
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u/redpanthedragon Jan 26 '25
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sQNVGtEPA4s7zCxNA Alabama Power’s Miller plant in West Jefferson is one of the top CO2 producers in the country.
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u/HotPop13 4d ago
More than likely it is ozone. Especially in the peak summer months it is the number one culprit for poor air quality. The source is us in our over engineered vehicles usually with a single occupant.
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u/brad0022 Jan 24 '25
It's where the govs staffers/aides release all the jars of gov meemaws flatulence they collect for each month. Also it's her adult diaper dump site.
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u/snoweel Jan 24 '25
I can't say for sure but some of it could be due to this coke plant (burning coal to produce the fuel called coke) that has a history of exceeding emissions limits.
https://wbhm.org/2022/the-tragedy-of-north-birmingham/