AQI Category

Good
Moderate
Unhealthy
Sensitive
Unhealthy
Very Unhealthy

St. Louis
1980
Ozone
SO2
154
34
28
115
34
84
19
9

9
0

Days Per Year by Site and Pollutant Type

St. Louis
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
2015
1980
2015
Ozone
SO2
Ozone
SO2
Ozone
SO2
196
0
54
107
104
85
19
0
28
140
106
0
0
0
37
21
51
0
0
0

0
0

36
113

0
0

8
0

0
0

Analysis
1. Three quantitative comparisons between Los Angeles and St. Louis from the data table:
a. In 1980, St. Louis had 100 more days than Los Angeles where the AQI for Ozone
was less than 50.
b. In 2015, St. Louis had 84 less days than Los Angeles where the AQI for SO2 was
below 50.
c. The levels of Ozone with an AQI of more than 200, in 2015, were the same for
both St. Louis and Los Angeles.

2. Patterns of different months/seasons of AGI fluctuations:

a. Late spring to early fall (Apr.-Oct.) show spikes in Ozone levels while the SO2
levels dont fluctuate.

3. What does the data reveal about how air quality has changed in St. Louis between 1980
and 2015?
a. The air quality in St. Louis has improved because the table shows the days with
unhealthy levels of SO2 and Ozone decreased in 2015. Ozone had more good
days compared to 1980 and less moderate days as well.

4. What does the data reveal about how air quality has changed in Los Angeles between
1980 and 2015?

a. Although there are still a number of unhealthy days in Los Angeles, there is
definitely an improvement. The number of healthy days nearly doubled in number
while moderate days nearly quadrupled. Unhealthy-sensitive days increased but
unhealthy and very unhealthy days decreased in Ozone levels. SO2 also improved
from 1980 to 2015 by all unhealthy levels dropping, however, the number of
healthy days decreased in 2015.

5. Which city has better air quality?

a. St. Louis has better air quality compared to Los Angeles because of the massive
improvement of different AQI categories. The number of good/healthy days
increased in St. Louis while Los Angeles decreased. After all, there are still
unhealthy levels of Ozone in Los Angeles between April and October.

6. Hypothesis of the causes of the differences between the two cities:

a. A hypothesis can be drawn that the reason why these two cities have different air
qualities is because Los Angeles is located next to the Pacific Ocean and has the
San Gabriel, Santa Ana and the Santa Monica Mountains surrounding the area. St.
Louis is next to the Mississippi River with no mountains nearby. The population
differences are vastly different as well; Los Angeles had a population of
3,792,621 in 2015 while St. Louis was only 319,294.