It’s been hailed as a silver lining of the coronavirus lockdown: With fewer cars on the road, air quality has improved, bringing clearer skies to cities across the world.
Los Angeles had its longest streak of good air days in decades, and social media is full of photos of an unusually crisp skyline. “Coronavirus Got Rid of Smog,” proclaimed a headline in the Wall Street Journal.
So has L.A. smog been eliminated?
Not exactly.
While there is no question the restrictions to stem the pandemic have reduced air pollution, the coronavirus lockdown does not bear full responsibility for the weeks of clean air Californians have enjoyed. Dramatic reductions in vehicle and industrial emissions contributed to lower smog levels, air quality experts say, but much of the improvement was also due to stormy spring weather.
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A man relaxes next to caution tape at Griffith Observatory during a clear day as the city remains locked down because of the coronavirus outbreak.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
“We have the readings that show us that the air has been better, and presumably it’s not a coincidence that it happens at the same time that people are sheltering in place and the economy is at a fraction of its normal activity,” said Mary Nichols, who chairs the California Air Resources Board. But determining how much is due to weather versus pandemic-triggered emissions reductions, she said, “will take us a while to figure that one out.”
At least for now, scientists and regulators say, the situation offers an unintended glimpse at what the nation’s smoggiest region could be like with more electric vehicles on the road. “If I could wave my magic wand and we all had electric cars tomorrow, I think this is what the air would look like,” said Ronald Cohen, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at UC Berkeley who has been studying the effects of the stay-at-home orders on air quality.
Environmental factors including deforestation, air pollution and urbanization contribute to the severity of pandemics like COVID-19. Experts warn that if we continue to destroy the environment, future pandemics could become more common.
The experience also underscores what it would take to clean Southern California’s air to federal health standards permanently, through a dramatic transition from fossil fuel combustion to zero-emission cars, trucks and power.
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Socially distanced bikers and walkers, against a backdrop of the Queen Mary, make their way along pedestrian and beach bike path on the first day that Long Beach reopened the path on Monday May 11, 2020. The city of Long Beach eased a few of its public health restrictions, allowing under certain guidelines the reopening of pedestrian and beach bike paths, tennis centers and courts. Beach bathrooms are also reopening, but the parking lots and beaches still remain closed. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Traffic remains light on the southbound 110 Freeway headed toward downtown Los Angeles on April 28. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Dominique Barrett, center, known as “King Vader” to his 2.4 million TikTok followers, prepares to shoot a video on April 30 in Glendora. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Cody Purcell of Redondo Beach rides a wave, glowing from the bioluminescence, in Hermosa Beach, CA, after midnight Friday morning, May 8. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
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Friends play spikeball, a game perfect for social distancing on an open but restricted San Buenaventura State Beach. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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The majority of golfers are wearing masks while hitting balls on the driving range at Van Buren Executive Golf Course in Riverside. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Beaches including Harbor Cove Beach were open but beachgoers were not supposed to be sitting on the sand. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Tango instructor Yelizaveta Nersesova leads a Zoom tango event from her Los Angeles home April 27 that brought together hundreds of dancers from around the world. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Grocery store workers, joined by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 770 representatives and community members, hold a rally in support of strict social distancing on May 1 at a Ralphs store in Hollywood where 19 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
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Mostly masked commuters keep their distance from one another on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles on April 29. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)
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Gregory Kuhl, 69, heads home after a shopping trip in Hollywood on April 28. Big cracks in the street, cars parked in driveways blocking sidewalks and uneven pavement levels make navigating his route difficult. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Tenants and their supporters from across Los Angeles gather at city hall to call on L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, the L.A. City Council and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to cancel rent and mortgage payments during the COVID-19 crisis. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Aerial view of over 100 vehicles lined up at the West Valley COVID-19 testing center at Warner Center in Woodland Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Senior Mason Wise, left, helps his sister, Mackenzie, a sophomore, clean out her PE locker at El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills. School officials were allowing no more than five students at a time on campus to take home their belongings. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Shuttered storefront businesses in the garment district of Los Angeles. California’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed since the statewide coronavirus shutdown took effect. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Healthcare workers celebrate as Claudia Martinez is discharged from the ICU after she recovered from COVID-19 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Carson residents Kaeli Burks, 3, left, and her cousin Bailey Watson, 5, look out the window of their car after their mothers helped them with self-testing at a new drive-up testing site for COVID-19 in Carson. Free COVID-19 testing is available to all city residents thanks to a partnership between the city and US Health Fairs. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Norm and Tracy Kahn enjoy eating dinner outside on a small cafe table sitting in blue chairs on their side yard during the coronavirus pandemic on April 27 in Riverside. “During this pandemic, eating outside offers us an opportunity to change surrounding and appreciate the calmness of being outdoors among trees, scents from nature and the sounds of birds,” she said. Also adding, “Mixing up where we eat puts variety into our days and takes away the sameness of feeling trapped at home.” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center nurses carry supplies outside the hospital. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Tom Sean Foley pauses on a walk with his kids, Cathelen Claire, “C.C.,” 3, and Timothy Joseph, 4, to take a photo in front of the “Love Wall,” mural by artist Curtis Kulig, outside of Smashbox Studios in Culver City. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Protesters stand along Mission Blvd. in Pacific Beach during A Day of Liberty rally on April 26. The protesters were against the government shutdown due to the coronavirus. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)
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People make orders at a food truck along Shoreline Avenue in Long Beach. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Medical staff, wearing protective gear, work inside a COVID-19 isolation area inside the emergency department at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, where patients with the virus are being treated. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Neighbors practice social distancing while enjoying the nice weather near The Strand in Hermosa Beach. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)
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Counter-protesters attend a protest to call on state and local officials to reopen the economy in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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A group of protesters cheer on cars during a vehicle caravan protest to call on state and local officials to reopen the economy in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation staff member Navi Cavaltera waters a flower pot put up by the community to show their support for the nursing staff of the facility in Yucaipa. Eighteen of 20 coronavirus-related deaths in Yucaipa were residents of the skilled nursing facility. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A pedestrian wearing a protective mask passes a mural on a store on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Jonte Florence, a freestyle dancer, does a handstand on a mostly empty Hollywood Walk of Fame. Florence said he normally performs for hundreds of tourists along the busy street. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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The Tyrannosaurus rex overlooking the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue wears a protective mask while practicing social distancing. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Businesses are shuttered and pedestrians are few and far between on Hollywood Boulevard. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Daniel Rogerson wears a vintage military gas mask while riding a bike along the beach path in Santa Monica, which is closed to enforce social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A face mask seller in colorful dress appears to be part of a mural behind a bus stop on Soto Street in Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Life around Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Soto Street has slowed down as California officials extended stay-at-home orders into May and residents entered Easter weekend with unprecedented limits on their movements. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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UC Irvine Medical Center health care workers return their gratitude as about 25 Orange County first responder vehicles participate in a drive-by parade of gratitude as they battle COVID-19 at the hospital. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Billy Budd, 55, of Hollywood, walks along Hollywood Boulevard with a protective face covering. Budd is a scenic artist for movies and television who is currently out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Stuart Reyes and his sister, Stephanie, sell masks for $5 each on the 3000 block of West Century Boulevard in Inglewood. Stuart Reyes said he is selling masks to support his mother. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A jogger runs on a closed trail past dozens of pieces of caution tape, torn off by hikers and mountain bikers at El Escorpion Canyon Park in West Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Alex Herron and nurse Mercy Pineda at a blood drive sponsored by USC athletics and the American Red Cross at USC’s Galen Center. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles City Hall displays blue lights to show support for healthcare workers and first responders. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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After being indoors for several days because of rainy weather and coronavirus stay-at-home orders, Olivia Jacobs, 4, and her mom, Cia Jacobs, enjoy a warm and sunny afternoon making chalk drawings on the sidewalk in front of their home in West Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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An Oceanview Plaza security guard sports a whimsical mask while on patrol. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jacob De Wilde, left, and Lesli Lytle load a car with food during a food distribution organized to mark Good Friday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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As a late season storm continues to make its way across the Southland, a young basketball player dribbles along an alley through an Elysian Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
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People are silhouetted in a window of an apartment building in Hollywood, where a stay-at-home order remains in effect to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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The Wilshire Grand Center display blue lights and a heart to show support for healthcare workers and first responders. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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Women wear masks as they stroll along Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Wearing masks while outdoors is mandatory in the city of Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Patients are removed from Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center after 39 tested positive for the coronavirus and nursing staff was not showing up to work. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A specimen is turned in at the new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Hippie Kitchen in Los Angeles hands out food, water and toiletries to homeless people and residents of skid row. Additionally, masks were offered to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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Nurses pose for a fun photo during a break in drive-through public testing for the coronavirus at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman shows a notice from her doctor that allows her to obtain a test for coronavirus at a new drive-up testing site in a parking lot at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A person who wishes to remain anonymous strikes from her car to support McDonald’s employees who are demanding the company cover healthcare costs of any worker or immediate family member who gets sick from COVID-19 in Los Angeles. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Cassidy Roosen, with Beach Cities Health District, holds up a sign that says, “We’re All in This Together,” while waiting to direct cars at a drive-through, appointment-only coronavirus testing location at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Grace Carter, 15, of Riverside, practices a dance routine at home after dance classes and school were canceled. She has to use the Zoom app on her iPhone to practice with her dance group. “It’s hard,” she said. “My bedroom is a smaller space. I miss all my friends at the studio.” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A man works from his home in Long Beach. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A San Bernardino County healthcare worker takes a sample at a coronavirus drive-through testing site at the county fairgrounds in Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A Metro general service employee disinfects a bench in Boyle Heights. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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A runner jogs past the Pottery Barn in Pasadena. Some businesses in the area have boarded up their stores. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Raquel Lezama and daughter Monica Ramos collect meals for their family at Manual Arts High School. Lezama was laid off from her $17.76-an-hour job at a Beverly Hills hotel. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The Iron City Tavern in San Pedro tries an incentive to lure takeout customers. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Healthcare workers gather outside UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center to call for further action from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Kristen Edgerle, of Victorville, collects information from a blood donor before drawing blood at The Richard Nixon Presidential Library blood drive during the coronavirus pandemic in Yorba Linda. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Shauna Jin, of Los Angeles, with her dog, Bodhi, practices social distancing with John Kiss, of Los Angeles, at the entrance of Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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A lending library had some additional useful items, including a roll of toilet paper and cans of beans and corn, in a Hermosa Beach neighborhood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Protesters drive by the Getty House, the home of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, in Hancock Park. Tenant advocates are demanding a total moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus crisis. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Venice residents Emily Berry and Gavin Kelley take a break at Venice Beach. Berry, a cocktail waitress at Enterprise Fish Co., lost her job due to the coronavirus outbreak. Kelley, a manager at a performing arts school with a focus on music, said that he still has a job and that classes at the school will resume online this coming Monday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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The JW Marriott at L.A. Live is sharing a message of hope with red lights in 34 windows, creating a 19-story display on the hotel’s north side. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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Juan Diaz Jr., a lifelong Dodgers fan, prays that the season will start by May in front of Dodger Stadium on what would have been opening day. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Hayley, CEO and founder of Love My Neighbor Foundation, right, dances with Crystal Armster, 51, while she and her colleagues continue to feed the homeless on skid row amid the pandemic. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A masked passenger on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Dede Oneal waits for a coronavirus test at the Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A man in a mask passes a closed restaurant along Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Artist Corie Mattie paints a mural on the side of a pop-up store as a man takes a picture in West Hollywood. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Medical assistant Zoila Villalta works with Rosie Boston, 32, of Glendale, who is donating blood for her first time at L.A. Care Health Plan downtown. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A couple wait for a bus outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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With all Los Angeles schools closed until further notice, LAUSD buses sit idle in Gardena. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A lone traveler makes his way to catch a flight in Tom Bradley International Terminal. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Denise Young looks on as her daughter, Allison, 9, a fourth-grader at EARThS (Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences) Magnet School in Newbury Park, receives a Chromebook. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Hollywood Boulevard is devoid of the usual crowds. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Michael Ray, 11, plays before a movie at the Paramount Drive-In. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Isabella Leader, 15, counts how many flags have been left for World War II veteran Lt. Col. Sam Sachs who was celebrating his 105th birthday at the Mom & Dad’s House, an assisted living facility, in Lakewood. Lt. Col. Sachs appealed to the public for birthday cards after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of a big celebration and wound up receiving thousands, including a letter and photo from President Trump. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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“There is technology that would allow us to have the clean air that we’re seeing now . . . on a permanent basis,” said Wayne Nastri, executive officer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Zero-emission technology is something that we all need to pursue very aggressively so that we can maintain these clean-air benefits, to see as far as we can and take those deep breaths.”
Unfortunately, the clean air spell has already come to an end, thanks to a heat wave in recent days that generated unhealthy smog levels across Southern California. Air quality officials are predicting more bad air days to come, even with public health restrictions in effect, as the region enters a hotter, drier time of year.
L.A.’s air has been unusually clean. In March, the area enjoyed 21 straight days of air in the green, “good” category on the Air Quality Index, in what was the longest stretch in at least four decades, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitoring data going back to 1980.
While that streak sounds exceptional, it began on March 7, well before Gov. Gavin Newsom issued statewide stay-at-home orders on March 19. It’s a time of year in Southern California that typically has the cleanest air, after the winter soot season and before summer smog.
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“The period in green was particularly stormy, with frequent storm systems, rain, and atypically high inversion heights,” said Nahal Mogharabi, a spokeswoman for the South Coast air district. “It is possible that this was partially due to reduced emissions, but meteorology likely played a much larger role.”
L.A. pollution levels crossed back into the “moderate” range on March 28. In the Inland Empire, where pollution is typically higher, the good air quality lasted a shorter 10 days before jumping back to moderate levels.
At least partly responsible for the recent gains, experts say, are restrictions from the pandemic that have brought abrupt and dramatic reductions in the vehicle traffic that is the biggest source of California’s air pollution.
In the time of Coronavirus this is an aerial view of 110 and 105 interchange in Los Angeles.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Data from roadside monitors in Southern California show that passenger vehicle traffic has decreased by one-third under the stay-at-home orders, while trucks — which contribute a greater share of smog-forming emissions — have declined by about 20%, according to air quality officials. In the Bay Area, regulators have reported more than 60% fewer cars on the road.
Cargo volumes at the Port of Los Angeles, a major hub for polluting trucks, ships and trains, were down 31% in March compared to March 2019.
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Emissions have plummeted too, with researchers detecting roughly 30% declines in nitrogen dioxide and other key air pollutants in Southern California and the Bay Area. Satellite measurements have revealed similar drops in air pollution during lockdowns in the northeastern U.S., China and India.
But in Southern California, experts say that favorable weather has made it hard to disentangle the effect of reduced emissions.
For example, an analysis of satellite measurements by Cohen and his team found a 32% decline in levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution in Southern California in the three weeks after the stay-at-home orders compared to the three weeks before. But they also found a 26% reduction between the same time periods in 2019, suggesting that spring weather played a big role.
(Priya Krishnakumar and Anthony Pesce / Los Angeles Times)
“Driving is dramatically lower,” Cohen said, “but differences in weather between this year and last still make it hard to put numbers on how much cleaner the air is because of the shelter-in-place.”
Weather is such a dominant factor in determining the region’s smog levels, according to the South Coast air district, that it can more than double the pollutant concentrations we are breathing, even when emissions remain constant.
Other evidence is emerging, nonetheless. The South Coast air district is starting to see below-average levels of key pollutants that form ozone, as well as days where concentrations of fine-particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide or carbon monoxide are lower than any recorded within 15 calendar days before and after that date in the past five years.
“However, we still expect to have ozone exceedances this year, even if emissions are reduced throughout the summer,” Mogharabi said.
Southern California’s air quality has, in fact, reached unhealthy levels during the shutdown.
On April 1, the region logged its first bad air day since stay-at-home-orders took effect. It racked up a string of additional violations since last week as temperatures climbed into the 90s and boosted smog levels. Even under lockdown, ozone pollution has exceeded federal health standards across the region, including in downtown Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Pasadena, Pomona, Riverside and San Bernardino.
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How can that be? The explanation lies in how a key ingredient in L.A.’s pollution is formed. Ozone, the lung-searing gas in smog that triggers asthma attacks and other health problems, is not emitted directly, but forms when pollution — from cars, trucks, factories and other combustion sources — bakes in the heat and sunlight.
Higher temperatures boost those smog-forming chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Combine that with dry, still conditions with strong inversion layers, and you get more pollution trapped near the ground where people are breathing.
That’s why more ozone violations are sure to come as the warm season brings the more stagnant, pollution-trapping pattern that besets Southern California for much of the year. But regulators and scientists could see a clearer signal of the effect of lowered emissions as time goes on, such as bad air days that are forecast but don’t materialize.
Health and environmental groups say the study is stark evidence of the danger of weakening pollution safeguards during the coronavirus pandemic.
April 8, 2020
The temporary drop in pollution has surely benefited people’s health during a time when healthy lungs are critical to confront the new coronavirus. But those gains have, of course, come at a heavy cost, including sickness, death, lost jobs and restricted freedom, that have environmentalists, scientists and regulators cautious not to celebrate.
“It’s terrible to get that view by people getting sick,” Cohen said. “It’s not at all how we would design the experiment if we had a choice.”
It’s also an unsustainable way to improve air quality, experts point out. If history is any guide, emissions will come roaring back once economic crisis fades, erasing these temporary gains.
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Before the pandemic, air quality had been on the decline across the U.S. in recent years, reversing decades of improvement. Southern California has long suffered the nation’s worst ozone pollution.
Adrian Martinez, an attorney at the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice, said he remains optimistic that experiencing what clean air actually feels like will bring a new moment of clarity and shake off any complacency over cleaning Southern California’s air.
“It’s going to change people’s frame of reference from how much worse it was in the sixties, seventies and eighties, to how do we get back to that time where we could go outside and breathe a deep breath of air and it’s safe?” Martinez said.
Environmentalists at the same time have raised alarms about the perils of loosening air quality protections during the pandemic and economic downturn.
The Trump administration has moved forward with major environmental rollbacks in recent weeks that are expected to hinder progress toward healthful air long after the pandemic wanes. California regulators are also fielding numerous requests to relax air quality rules and delay new regulations to provide relief to industries in upheaval.
South Coast air board Chairman William A. Burke vowed to continue the work of cleaning pollution while being sensitive to both business and environmental concerns, but said he fears air quality will take a nosedive once the economy reopens.
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“Because I think that everybody who’s been holding all the goods that haven’t been shipping during this pandemic are going to let it go,”Burke said. “I don’t think there’s enough trucks to carry all the stuff that Americans and Californians are going to need.”
Burke predicted a surge in complaints to the district’s air pollution hotline, 1-800-CUT-SMOG, “because I think that commerce will spring back into action.”
Tony Barboza is an editorial writer focusing on climate change and the environment. Before joining the editorial board in November 2021, he worked for 15 years as a news reporter for the Times’ California section, covering air quality, climate change, environmental health and other topics. Barboza was born and raised in Colorado and is a graduate of Pomona College.
