This has been a very smoke-free summer season to date over the complete West Coast, and to understand our clean-air bounty, let’s examine satellite tv for pc imagery between this afternoon and a 12 months in the past.
Yesterday’s MODIS seen satellite tv for pc picture reveals smoke-free skies over almost the complete western U.S., with two exceptions: a really small fireplace west of Lake Chelan and a modest smoke space in northern CA. That’s about it!
Evaluate that to the smoky miasma of precisely one 12 months in the past. Yuck! Smoke in every single place!
The air high quality information offered by the EPA of their AIR NOW community reveals the story on the bottom. This 12 months, almost all sensors point out good (inexperienced) air high quality. You possibly can breathe freely in nearly the complete West.
However final 12 months on the identical date plenty of yellow and reds (poor air high quality), significantly over jap Washington and northern California.
What is especially attention-grabbing concerning the present wildfire/smoke state of affairs is that California has been very dry and hotter than regular in the course of the previous six months. But the hearth state of affairs is comparatively benign. It demonstrates that wildfires and smoke are advanced options and that it’s essential to think about greater than temperature and moisture to elucidate issues.
Lastly, wanting ahead in time, right here is the NOAA HRRR mannequin smoke forecast for at this time at 5 PM. This reveals the overall smoke in a vertical column..the quantity on the floor could be a lot much less.
Not too dangerous for this time of the 12 months!
