5 NJ vacation destinations have some of the best air quality, study says

You don’t need me to tell you it’s been a uniquely weird summer in New Jersey. It seems like most of the weekends have been less than ideal beach weather with clouds or extreme heat. Then, to make matters worse, the smoke from the Canadian wildfires took over the NJ skies.

Seriously, half of the pictures taken this summer look like they were edited to have a Sepia Instagram filter from 2012. There was absolutely NO editing done to this photo of outside my workplace.

Gross. I could smell the smoke just looking at that picture.

All that to say, a study put out by MyBioSource was a breath of fresh air (see what they did there?) when it comes to where you should vacation this summer. They took data from the last few weeks to determine which vacation destinations in the U.S. have the cleanest air.

How they came to the conclusion?

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a measure of how polluted the air is and how it affects human health. It is a numerical scale that ranges from 0 to 500, with 0 being the cleanest air and 500 being the most polluted.

The AQI is based on six pollutants:
🔵 Ozone
🔵 Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10)
🔵 Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
🔵 Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
🔵 Carbon monoxide (CO)
🔵 Lead (Pb)

It should come as no surprise that Hawaii and Alaska dominate the top five slots, but the good news is the Garden State was well represented. Of the top 120 vacation destinations in the U.S., five New Jersey spots made the cut.

These are the New Jersey cities with the cleanest air quality:

1️⃣1️⃣5️⃣ Asbury Park

Average AQI: 54.

1️⃣1️⃣3️⃣ Long Beach Island

Average AQI: 53.

1️⃣0️⃣9️⃣ Cape May

Average AQI: 49.

9️⃣7️⃣ Ocean City

Average AQI: 46.

9️⃣2️⃣ Wildwood

Average AQI: 45

So as it turns out, the Jersey shore is the place to be this summer, especially for those of us who have been affected by the poor air quality this summer. You can read the top 120 from MyBioSource here.

For a reminder of just how bad the air quality was this summer, take a look at these photos.

Now take a look to remember just how gorgeous New Jersey can be.

https://www.mybiosource.com/summer-vacation-air-quality-index

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kylie Moore. Any opinions expressed are Kylie's own. You can follow Kylie on Instagram.

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