The Hudson Valley’s Air Quality Rated By County

The latest air quality report card was released, and the Hudson Valley is all over the place with grades ranging from A to F.

It's strange to think that counties so close to each other can have such a bug difference in air quality, but the latest results issued by the American Lung Association shows that geography plays a big role in how healthy the Hudson Valley is breathing.

The annual “State of the Air” report compiles results on ozone pollution and particle pollution, the two biggest air pollutants. According to a release by the American Lung Association, both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to public health and can even be lethal.

Although ozone pollution has been trending downward throughout the country, the Hudson Valley has seen a spike in ozone days. Although there have been efforts to cut ozone-causing emissions, warmer temperatures due to climate change have been blamed for making the cleanup more difficult, especially in our area. Dutchess County, for example,  had six "code-orange" ozone days last year, which is 3 more than were observed in 2015's report.

When it comes to Ozone, here are the scores from our area:

• Orange: A
• Dutchess: C
• Putnam: C
• Albany: D
• Rockland: F
• Westchester: F

*Ulster and Sullivan Countys' data was incomplete, and not calculated in the report.

Particle pollution scores were not available for most of the state, but Orange and Albany, the two counties closes to the Hudson Valley that were monitored both got an "A" rating.\

You can find out more results on the American Lung Association's official website.