2026-08-13 · air
Tacoma fine particulate pollution runs above its usual range
Tacoma fine particulate pollution measured 14.5 micrograms per cubic metre on 2026-08-13, against a typical 7.5 across 31 comparable days (same time of year, all years on record), which ranged from 3.0 to 60.3.
Today
14.5
micrograms per cubic metre
Typical
7.5
median of 31 comparable days
Difference
+95%
against typical
Surprisal
2.4
bits
Quiet day. Nothing crossed the bar for a genuinely strange reading. This is the least ordinary thing the machine found among 20 series, and by chance alone a day like it turns up most days. Most days are ordinary. Saying so is part of the job.
Also unusual today
- Seattle automatic fire alarms at 14 dispatches, typically 22 1.9 bits
- Seattle lower-priority aid responses at 18 dispatches, typically 14 1.9 bits
- Seattle motor vehicle incident calls at 10 dispatches, typically 6 1.9 bits
- Wikipedia readers looking up the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at 158 pageviews, typically 198 1.6 bits
How this was measured
| Series | air.tacoma.pm25 |
|---|---|
| Value | 14.5 micrograms per cubic metre |
| Baseline | median 7.5, range 3.0 to 60.3, from 31 days (same time of year, all years on record) |
| Robust z | +2.19 |
| Surprisal | 2.42 bits (p = 1.88e-01) |
| p estimate | empirical: measured directly against the comparable days |
| Series tested | 20 |
| Recurrence | most days |
Read the full method, or take the permanent link to this day.
The headline and the sentence above were written by the machine from a fixed template. The language model was unavailable or its draft failed a check.