Just returned from a business trip to Dallas where it was 102 degrees!!!! (I landed at midnight last night and it was 80)… saw the oddest thing en route to the airport tonight…Signs along the highway warning of a RED/ORANGE alert. I was assuming this was somewhere in the range of an amber alert… not even close.

This was the verbage on the sign: RED ALERT: UNSAFE AIR POLLUTION CONDITIONS FOR ALL AREAS.

Agh! Maybe I live in a bubble in Seattle but I have never seen that sign in my town and in doing a tad of research upon landing tonight I found this:

Air Quality Alert

Dallas (Texas)

AIR QUALITY ALERT MESSAGE
TXZ103>105-117>121-131-133>135-252045-
AIR QUALITY ALERT MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX
142 PM CDT WED JUN 24 2009
...AIR POLLUTION WATCH LEVEL ORANGE...
AIR POLLUTION WATCH - LEVEL ORANGE - FOR DALLAS-FORT WORTH.
THE TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (TCEQ) HAS ISSUED A
LEVEL ORANGE AIR POLLUTION WATCH FOR THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA
FOR THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2009.
ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE FAVORABLE FOR PRODUCING
HIGH LEVELS OF OZONE AIR POLLUTION IN THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA
ON THURSDAY. OZONE LEVELS COULD REACH THE LEVEL ORANGE "UNHEALTHY
FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS" CATEGORY.
ELEVATED CONCENTRATIONS OF OZONE CAN ACT AS A LUNG IRRITANT.
INDIVIDUALS WITH CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE, SUCH AS ASTHMA AND
EMPHYSEMA, AS WELL AS THE ELDERLY AND YOUNG CHILDREN, ARE
PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE TO OZONE AND SHOULD ATTEMPT TO AVOID
EXPOSURE.  TO AVOID EXPOSURE, MINIMIZE EXERTION OUTDOORS DURING
THE MID-DAY TO EARLY EVENING HOURS OR STAY INDOORS IN AN AIR-
CONDITIONED ROOM DURING THIS TIME.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OZONE, VISIT THE TCEQ OZONE DATA PAGE:
(USE LOWER CASE LETTERS)