A lot of areas across the Northwest are experiencing poor air high quality…..with some areas rivaling the particle concentrations skilled throughout the current wildfire occasions.
Nevertheless it is not wildfires this time. It’s woodsmoke plus a SuperInversion. Puget Sound Clear Air Company has a Stage 1 Burn Ban in place.
Let’s begin by trying on the air high quality info from the PurpleAir community (beneath) this morning. Inexperienced is sweet air high quality, yellow is declining, orange is of concern, and purple/purple is unhealthy.
Mediocre air high quality within the south Sound, however significantly degrading air high quality round Spokane, northeast WA, and round Bend Oregon.
The origin of the smoke is obvious: primarily smoke from burning wooden for heat. Parenthetically, a extremely renewable vitality supply.
Historically, the primary air high quality downside within the Northwest has been from wooden smoke, not summer season wildfires. However woodsmoke has declined as a difficulty as extra of us use pure gasoline fireplaces/heaters and air high quality companies (comparable to Puget Sound Clear Air Company) promulgate and implement burn bans throughout threatening conditions. Extra intensive use of pure gasoline has helped clear our winter ambiance. And rising prices of oil and gasoline have additionally stimulated using wooden.
We’re in a threatening state of affairs now, as a robust inversion, with temperature rising with peak, has developed over our area. Inversions are very steady options that act as lids on the decrease ambiance.
Above SeaTac Airport this morning at 7 AM, temperatures elevated from 38-39F simply above the floor (and even decrease on the floor) to 49-50F round 2000 ft. A robust low-level inversion.
At Quillayute, on the Washington coast, temperatures elevated from 1 to 13C over an identical layer close to the floor (see plot beneath). That’s about 22F warming in a couple of thousand ft. Wow. Mama Mia…that could be a sturdy inversion!
So now we have chilly climate that stimulates of us to rev up the wooden burning and an inversion that caps the decrease ambiance, permitting air pollution ranges to rise.
Why do now we have such a robust inversion? Blame the sturdy, persistent high-pressure signifies ridge over us (see upper-level map for this morning beneath).
A excessive produces sinking air aloft that stops clouds from forming. With out clouds, the floor can successfully emit infrared to house, cooling the floor. Like having a fridge coil on the floor.
The sinking from the excessive aloft causes the air to compress and heat at center elevations. This helps rev up the inversion much more!
And our nights now are very lengthy as properly, permitting extra floor cooling.
The longer term outlook? Anticipate poor air high quality circumstances to proceed (and even worsen) this week.
