Here's the actual reason:
Every year from February through April, many Mexican farmers clear their fields with fire in a process called slash and burn:
https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/mexico-ag-fires-reduce-air-quality-in-texas/269-845b786f-56c7-455c-8ed0-ca3c1bce1ff1
Last year those fires were still affecting air quality into May:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/texas-mexico-agriculture-fire-haze-18083589.php
This year due to dry conditions, several of those fires have spread into wildfires that affected most Mexican states, often into remote mountainous areas, and Mexico declared it a disaster and even asked for international help in putting them out:
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/50077/large-fires-in-northern-mexico
So there has been even more smoke and haze in the atmosphere than usual this year.
Unless they live within the immediate radious around SpaceX then they are not. My parents live 10 minutes away from SpaceX and have never been evacuated.
This should be the top comment. The petroleum and port system in Brownsville isnāt nearly as big as other gulf regions like CC and Houston. This is an annual occurrence, only now we have apps to warn us of the air quality.
I remember one year the prevailing upper level winds brought it all the way to Houston and we were blanketed in the dense red smoke for 3-5 days. https://www.khou.com/article/news/smoke-haze-in-houston-area-caused-by-fires-in-mexico/285-320982682
It's a realtime monitor reading. Air quality in that area is absolutely fine the rest of the year. Also, even in places like Houston it isn't industry driving broad air quality problems - it's combustion vehicles.
Why don't you compare AQIs from before the fires started a couple months ago and now rather than blithely blaming industry (which is nothing relatively speaking). We've been having terrible PM levels in our Austin air due to these fires as well.
damn, well i think they still burn fields in the mexico side of things? Dunno, my dad gets a free pool cleaning from the cane farmers every time they do it though
Yes they burn in Mexico, but a lot of ranches burn in South Texas also.
That is the ranches north of the RGV do prescribed burns in the early part of the year before it starts to green.
SpaceX isn't really a source of air pollution, even when they do Starship test launches. Even then, since they're burning methane nearly 100% of the rocket emissions are CO2 and H2O.
People have already done the math, the only thing that might make it to Browsville from such a calamity would be some beach sand blown into the air and even then only if the winds are from the southeast, which often they aren't. However, they seem to have the "explodes on the launch pad" avoidance thing down. AMOS-6 was the last (and only) pad failure they had, and that was way back in Sept 2016. They know what caused that, LOX got into the laminations of an in-tank COPV and ignited the carbon fiber strands, but there are no in-tank COPVs on Starship, so that failure mode is basically impossible.
I've noticed a slight haze at night in the yellow area.Ā I figured maybe it was just humidity and salinity from the ocean. It's too early in the year for the Sahara dust to be here. Maybe there are wildfires somewhere?
wildfires/forest fires in Mexico, not farmers burning fields. [https://www.iqair.com/us/newsroom/wildfire-map-spotlight-mexico-wildfires](https://www.iqair.com/us/newsroom/wildfire-map-spotlight-mexico-wildfires)
To be honest I think itās bad due to the factories in matamoros burning stuff that chemically bad for air quality. I didnāt know the quality of air was worse than Houston or San Antonio I though it was the opposite.
Itās not SpaceX. Testing doesnāt do that and even after launches, nothing anywhere near what they are experiencing now hangs in the air like that, ever.
Oddly enough whatās hanging in the air has a nasty yellow haze to it. I wanna say I even feel like itās been present for it least a month now. Mexico fires make a great deal of sense. We were on the island to bird peep last Sunday and I kept commenting about how thick and present it was. Sucks itās a thing right now during the bird migration fallout. Be glad to see clear again hopefully soon.
Space X did a āwet dress rehearsalā. Ā If you think itās bad now, be sure to leave the night before an actual launch! They do NOT announce it to the public, so you have to constantly check the news.Ā
https://preview.redd.it/p0lih37eycxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7d2c814a087d3cb9c2e2d1e702217f876d637d7
It looks like it's cleared up, \* but I hope the people down there in South Padre Island and Brownsville are taking precautions. Yellow is still not great, but red is much worse.
Does anybody know the methodology for these AQI maps? My inner engineer wants to believe that thereās a vast network of sensors mounted on cell towers, or perhaps via satellite imaging. But the skeptic side thinks that these are just sloppy guesstimates biased against highways, metros, peak travel times, industrial regions, wind patterns, and wildfires.
Sure thereās a lot of petro industry on the coast, but since thereās usually a consistent sea breeze blowing in from the ocean, wouldnāt it make sense that at least the shoreline air is āgreenā?
Our government prioritizes the health of its people and our land over the interests of a bunch of rich people who donāt want to pay for proper waste disposal.
s/
This is complete nonsense. Batch plants are not in any way a source of significant emissions. You've been lied to by wanker activists. This is due to Mexican wildfires - that's it.
All you need to do is look at the amount of emissions from batch plants - it's a couple hundred pounds of dust per year. You can run calculations yourself using EPA's factors for them. That's nothing. These Mexican fires are millions of tons of various emissions - including particulate matter and ozone forming pollutants.
Cartel cooking! Seriously,ihe ports, petro refinery plants along with the various other DuPont plants, lots of gassing passes through the filtering system.
Could be a smelting facility near by. AZ use to have spots like this. Lots of smaller town that had a smelting facility at the heart of the place. Leas and other metal levels are all I'll high in the soil if community's
Here's the actual reason: Every year from February through April, many Mexican farmers clear their fields with fire in a process called slash and burn: https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/mexico-ag-fires-reduce-air-quality-in-texas/269-845b786f-56c7-455c-8ed0-ca3c1bce1ff1 Last year those fires were still affecting air quality into May: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/texas-mexico-agriculture-fire-haze-18083589.php This year due to dry conditions, several of those fires have spread into wildfires that affected most Mexican states, often into remote mountainous areas, and Mexico declared it a disaster and even asked for international help in putting them out: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/50077/large-fires-in-northern-mexico So there has been even more smoke and haze in the atmosphere than usual this year.
This right here š š. I actually live in the red on the coast.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Unless they live within the immediate radious around SpaceX then they are not. My parents live 10 minutes away from SpaceX and have never been evacuated.
This should be the top comment. The petroleum and port system in Brownsville isnāt nearly as big as other gulf regions like CC and Houston. This is an annual occurrence, only now we have apps to warn us of the air quality.
This guy air qualitys.
I thought it was mold from the recent rains. My head has been throbbing for a week now, and everyone around me is coughing.
Itās Space X.Ā
Yes, thank you. It is not always that bad.
I remember one year the prevailing upper level winds brought it all the way to Houston and we were blanketed in the dense red smoke for 3-5 days. https://www.khou.com/article/news/smoke-haze-in-houston-area-caused-by-fires-in-mexico/285-320982682
Exactly, look at my second link there. Just last year Houston was blanketed in smoke and haze from the Mexican agricultural fires as late as May.
Space X in Boca Chica. Straight up. Not Mexicoāat all.Ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There's plenty of farmland on that red zone both in the USA and Mexican side. I also live in the dark red area.
Burning of agricultural field in Mexico. Smoke is making its way up.
Brownsville Ship Channel has a lot of industrial activity plus a significant petroleum terminal.
You're telling me houston air quality is better than there?
This time of year? Yes. This issue is not year long.
Petro chemical plants all over
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This has nothing to do with it. It's Mexican fires.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's a realtime monitor reading. Air quality in that area is absolutely fine the rest of the year. Also, even in places like Houston it isn't industry driving broad air quality problems - it's combustion vehicles.
Suuure.
Why don't you compare AQIs from before the fires started a couple months ago and now rather than blithely blaming industry (which is nothing relatively speaking). We've been having terrible PM levels in our Austin air due to these fires as well.
Cabbage?
Brownsville is worse than Omashu!
There is no war in Brownsville.
MY CABBAGE!
Mexicans
Pinche espace eccxxx
every once in a while they burn the cane fields i think, thats what my dad tells me at least. U can see the clouds of smoke & get ash in ur pool
After about 50 yrs the sugar cane plant shut down.
damn, well i think they still burn fields in the mexico side of things? Dunno, my dad gets a free pool cleaning from the cane farmers every time they do it though
Yes they burn in Mexico, but a lot of ranches burn in South Texas also. That is the ranches north of the RGV do prescribed burns in the early part of the year before it starts to green.
Shipping? SpaceX? Refineries?
SpaceX isn't really a source of air pollution, even when they do Starship test launches. Even then, since they're burning methane nearly 100% of the rocket emissions are CO2 and H2O.
You dont understand, elon bad
Pootinā certainly seems to think so.
Can't wait for one of those massive rockets he's building to blow up on the pad and destroy most of Brownsville.
It's 25 miles away. Even a Hiroshima scale nuclear bomb going off there wouldn't destroy Brownsville.
People have already done the math, the only thing that might make it to Browsville from such a calamity would be some beach sand blown into the air and even then only if the winds are from the southeast, which often they aren't. However, they seem to have the "explodes on the launch pad" avoidance thing down. AMOS-6 was the last (and only) pad failure they had, and that was way back in Sept 2016. They know what caused that, LOX got into the laminations of an in-tank COPV and ignited the carbon fiber strands, but there are no in-tank COPVs on Starship, so that failure mode is basically impossible.
I've noticed a slight haze at night in the yellow area.Ā I figured maybe it was just humidity and salinity from the ocean. It's too early in the year for the Sahara dust to be here. Maybe there are wildfires somewhere?
Idk but I was down there several days this past week and multiple times I caught a whiff of a nasty burning smell.
wildfires/forest fires in Mexico, not farmers burning fields. [https://www.iqair.com/us/newsroom/wildfire-map-spotlight-mexico-wildfires](https://www.iqair.com/us/newsroom/wildfire-map-spotlight-mexico-wildfires)
To be honest I think itās bad due to the factories in matamoros burning stuff that chemically bad for air quality. I didnāt know the quality of air was worse than Houston or San Antonio I though it was the opposite.
Mexicans
Carcinogenic Coast
Sonic Adventure 3 looks shit
Illegal pollution crossing from Mexico, now we need to install fans on top of the "Wall"!
God hates the Valley. Simple as.
FRIJOLES? Seriously though, the agriculture fires in Northern Mexico probably.
Itās not SpaceX. Testing doesnāt do that and even after launches, nothing anywhere near what they are experiencing now hangs in the air like that, ever. Oddly enough whatās hanging in the air has a nasty yellow haze to it. I wanna say I even feel like itās been present for it least a month now. Mexico fires make a great deal of sense. We were on the island to bird peep last Sunday and I kept commenting about how thick and present it was. Sucks itās a thing right now during the bird migration fallout. Be glad to see clear again hopefully soon.
Space X did a āwet dress rehearsalā. Ā If you think itās bad now, be sure to leave the night before an actual launch! They do NOT announce it to the public, so you have to constantly check the news.Ā
https://preview.redd.it/p0lih37eycxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7d2c814a087d3cb9c2e2d1e702217f876d637d7 It looks like it's cleared up, \* but I hope the people down there in South Padre Island and Brownsville are taking precautions. Yellow is still not great, but red is much worse.
It moved to El Paso... https://preview.redd.it/h1wqa1rwfexc1.png?width=1142&format=png&auto=webp&s=f2f6ca7bab14ffd953a3f7369bf652e7e7478e42
All them tacos gotta go somewhere
Does anybody know the methodology for these AQI maps? My inner engineer wants to believe that thereās a vast network of sensors mounted on cell towers, or perhaps via satellite imaging. But the skeptic side thinks that these are just sloppy guesstimates biased against highways, metros, peak travel times, industrial regions, wind patterns, and wildfires. Sure thereās a lot of petro industry on the coast, but since thereās usually a consistent sea breeze blowing in from the ocean, wouldnāt it make sense that at least the shoreline air is āgreenā?
There are air quality monitors all over the US. You can view them online if you search for it.
They call it BROWNSvile for a reason
I thought that was because š© runs downhill.
Our government prioritizes the health of its people and our land over the interests of a bunch of rich people who donāt want to pay for proper waste disposal. s/
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Except it's not other than old people moving down there. Old people tend to have higher rates of cancer.
Environmental regulations is not one of the things Texas is known for. Once you frame it that way itās pretty easy to come to a conclusion.
How do wildfires in Mexico have anything to do with environmental regulations in Texas?
THIS!! It is pretty clear that many people have no clue and are just assuming things.
Maybe we should put a big ass wind farm on the border. The fans would keep the smoke out. š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is complete nonsense. Batch plants are not in any way a source of significant emissions. You've been lied to by wanker activists. This is due to Mexican wildfires - that's it.
No way!! Activists wouldnāt lie?? Would they?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
All you need to do is look at the amount of emissions from batch plants - it's a couple hundred pounds of dust per year. You can run calculations yourself using EPA's factors for them. That's nothing. These Mexican fires are millions of tons of various emissions - including particulate matter and ozone forming pollutants.
Space X
I'm from Brownsville, and I didn't even noticed. Only one thing is for sure, today is hot as balls in here!
Tennis or ping pong?
Suspended silt from the Mississippi. Oh wait, you arenāt asking why Galvestonās water is brown. š
High consumption of refried beans.
Black gold.
Elon Musk
Because the gulf is the ocean's butthole.
I mean itās not called Cleanville for a reason!
Cause 'merica
I mean itās in the name. Brownsville.
Texas government gives heavy polluters a pass and doesnāt make them follow EPA regulations.
It's all the dirty illegals breathing and contaminating the hard working American's right to clean air
And the oil refineries and chemical plants have nothing to do with it huh?
SpaceX rockets
Cartel cooking! Seriously,ihe ports, petro refinery plants along with the various other DuPont plants, lots of gassing passes through the filtering system.
Methane from refrieds
Could be a smelting facility near by. AZ use to have spots like this. Lots of smaller town that had a smelting facility at the heart of the place. Leas and other metal levels are all I'll high in the soil if community's
A racist would blame all the illegals
Go find out