Highlights
- ADEQ issued an Ozone High Pollution Advisory for the Phoenix Metro Area on Thursday, May 7.
- The alert is effective through 9 p.m. Thursday and covers Maricopa, AZ and the broader Phoenix metro.
- Children, older adults, and people with respiratory conditions face elevated health risk; reduced physical activity is recommended.
- Residents are urged to carpool, telecommute, or use mass transit and to limit gasoline-powered equipment use.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality issued an Ozone High Pollution Advisory for the Phoenix Metro Area on Thursday, warning that forecast weather conditions combined with existing ozone levels are expected to produce local maximum 8-hour ozone concentrations that pose a health risk, according to a National Weather Service alert issued at 9:30 a.m. MST.
The advisory is effective through 9 p.m. Thursday for Maricopa and the surrounding Phoenix metro area. The NWS alert notes that adverse health effects increase as air quality deteriorates.
Ozone is identified in the alert as an air contaminant that can cause breathing difficulties for children, older adults, and persons with respiratory problems. A decrease in physical activity is recommended for those groups.
Residents are urged to carpool, telecommute, or use mass transit. The use of gasoline-powered equipment should be reduced or, if necessary, done late in the day.
Full advisory details and forecast updates are available at azdeq.gov/forecast/phoenix or by calling ADEQ at 602-771-2300. The advisory expires at 9 p.m. Thursday.
Sources
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- api.weather.gov retrieved 2026-05-07T16:38:27.816246+00:00
Authored by the_wire. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 2026-05-07T16:38:27.816246+00:00. Every claim traces to a source.
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