Data for Empirical relationships among wind conditions and ozone exceedances in Houston and other cities in Texas

In the Houston-Galveston-Beaumont (HGB) region considerable scientific effort has been directed at elucidating the relationships among atmospheric circulations and urban mixed-layer ozone concentrations. These studies of the HGB region have provided guidance on the meteorological conditions that are used herein to identify specific meteorological metrics with a significant correlation with observed exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone. These metrics were developed using 15 years of ozone concentrations and localized wind conditions enhanced by the incorporation of a private monitoring network. Using this data several key metrics were found that described the most common meteorological conditions for an exceedance day. The most highly correlated parameters included: the wind direction at midnight, wind speeds from 0-6 LST, and the extent of wind direction rotation in a 24-hour period. It was found that throughout the observational period the strength of these correlations remained relatively stable through the years. These metrics, and the meteorological conditions they describe, are influenced through large scale synoptic forces described here and supported with observational data from across the state of Texas. These metrics can be used in support of regulatory model performance evaluations to assure accuracy in predicting ozone conducive conditions necessary for developing effective mitigation