‘The air hasn’t been this clean in a long time.’ Stunning photo shows clear CA night sky

A stunning photo from a wildlife officer is documenting California’s improving air quality during the coronavirus pandemic.

As people continue to stay at home as coronavirus spreads, the state has seen “a significant reduction of air pollution,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife said on Facebook.

“That’s some good news,” the wildlife agency said. “The air hasn’t been this clean in a long time, opening up the skies to some great photography.”

A wildlife officer took advantage of the clear skies to catch a photo of a beautiful starry night sky near the Indian Valley Reservoir Wildlife Area, Fish and Wildlife said.

California has historically had some of the worst air quality in the country, The Sacramento Bee reported. It’s recently been made worse by climate change and wildfires, according to the news outlet.

“Nearly every Californian lives in an area with unhealthy ozone,” Dr. John Balmes, a California Air Resources Board member and a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, told The Sacramento Bee. “As a physician, this is unacceptable, but it needs to be unacceptable to everyone.”

Staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic, however, has reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides and air pollution, the University of California, Riverside, said in a news release.

“One UC Riverside air quality researcher thinks that’s both good news and bad news,” UCR said in the news release. “To maintain our cleaner air and slow climate change by reducing pollutants, some of the shutdown’s lifestyle changes, such as teleworking, need to continue long after we’ve vanquished the pandemic.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 6:25 PM with the headline "‘The air hasn’t been this clean in a long time.’ Stunning photo shows clear CA night sky."