U.S. Air Quality

Santa Cruz, California Fire

There is a large fire in Santa Cruz, California. The smoke plume extends over the Pacific. This is the same “fast moving fire that destroyed ten homes”. Refer to the story posted on CNN (article archived here). AOD (~0.5) is elevated in this region and fine particulate matter levels are in the moderate range (code yellow).

Left: MODIS RGB (UW MODIS Today)
Right: MODIS AOD (NOAA UMBC GASP IDEA)

Also, conditions haven’t improved much over the South (see AOD and RGB). PM2.5 concentrations are mostly moderate in the South Central United States.